Washington – Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that the U.S. armed forces stand ready to confront Iran, but told lawmakers that a successful implementation of the nuclear agreement with Tehran is preferable to a military strike.
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Carter, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and three members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet testified at a committee hearing.
It was part of the White House’s aggressive campaign to convince Congress to back the Iranian nuclear deal, which calls on Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
On Wednesday, about 100 House Democrats went to the White House, where Obama spoke about the agreement for about 30 minutes in the East Room. The representatives had to leave to vote at the Capitol, but some were returning in the evening for a question-and-answer session.
On Thursday morning, Vice President Joe Biden will host members of the House Democratic Caucus for breakfast at the Naval Observatory to discuss the deal.
Carter said there is a possibility that the nuclear agreement will move forward, but will not be “successfully implemented.”
“That’s why we are under instructions from the president to preserve, and indeed we are improving — and I can’t get into that here — the military option,” Carter said. “Temporary as it is, it needs to be there because that’s our fall back.”
At the same time, Carter said that the successful implementation of the agreement would be better than taking military action because a strike would be temporary and likely would make Iran “irreconcilably resigned” to getting a nuclear weapon.
Congress, which has begun a 60-day review of the deal, is expected to vote in September. If the Republican-controlled Congress passes a resolution of disapproval for the deal, Obama has said he will veto it. The administration is hoping to secure the backing of Democrats to sustain the veto.
Earlier in the week, the White House won the backing of Democratic Rep. Sander Levin, a Jewish lawmaker from Michigan. His support was critical because Iran has threatened to destroy Israel.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, met with members of a pro-Israel lobby Wednesday morning and then went to the White House to meet one-on-one with the president.
“He (Obama) asked for the meeting. I assume he’s doing it with a number of people,” Nadler said. “He’s a very persuasive person and he knows his subject so I have to assume that if minds are open, some will be affected.”
Nadler, who is Jewish, said he hasn’t decided.
“I’m going to try to ignore the politics. I’m going to try to ignore my own emotions,” he said. “It’s very difficult for me, emotionally, to be against the politicians in Israel and AIPAC,” the American Israel Public Relations Committee. “Monday I lean one way and Tuesday I lean the other way.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-New Jersey, said: “I’m leaning yes. I haven’t made that final decision yet.”
Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Illinois, hasn’t decided either.
“I’m going to go home and make up my mind,” said Lipinski, who added that AIPAC was making robocalls with a message to vote against the deal.
Underscoring the hard-fought gains and losses, New York Rep. Grace Meng, a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, came out against the deal on Wednesday. She said the inspections protocols in the agreement are “flawed,” she’s concerned that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain intact and she also fears the sanctions relief will give Iran more money to fund terrorism.
Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state for political affairs and ambassador to NATO, met with House Democrats at the invitation of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is leading the effort to round up Democratic support for the deal.
At a breakfast with reporters before the hearing, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who also testified, said he believed the White House would gain enough support in Congress to sustain a veto if Congress votes to reject the Iran nuclear deal. There would be sufficient support — “enough for this to be sustained,” he said — if Congress rejects the agreement and Obama vetoes the resolution of disapproval.
Secretary of State John Kerry, the lead negotiator of the deal, tried to allay the concerns of Republican senators who complained that they are being asked to vote on the Iran nuclear deal without being privy to verification documents being separately negotiated by international nuclear inspectors.
“That is absolutely astounding,” said Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Iran, he said, has a “clear record of cheating.”
Kerry said there is no side deal or secret agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. There are, however, technical documents that are standard practice and not released publicly.
“We are aware of what the basics of it are,” Kerry told the committee members. “It is standard procedure for 189 counties that have an agreement with the IAEA. … We don’t get that. It is not shared with the world, but we do get briefed on it.”
Secretary Ass Carter, Are you that stupid or naive to believe that Iran will abide by the terms of the agreement even as weak as it is ie. No real inspections; Iran will take it’s own soil samples, etc.
Idiot! There will be a strike anyway. Iran will not keep their end of the bargain, and you bimbos of the current Obama regime just made the Iranians the fox that guards the hen house. How far beyond stupid! Now the Iranian strike will be sanctioned by Obama and the rest of you traitors!
If all these democrats go along with their anti Semitic boss and back this disastrous Iran deal, hopefully the heretofore ignorant liberal Jews will finally vote republican, to punish their “leaders” for sacrificing israel’s safety!
“Carter said that the successful implementation of the agreement would be better than taking military action because a strike would be temporary and likely would make Iran “irreconcilably resigned” to getting a nuclear weapon.”
Not if we strike for real. The strike worthy of the country like ours should result in that savage regime’s fall, then the newly installed president by the name Konrad Adenauer al-Maliki will cancel this program on the first day of his rule.