There is "no sunset" in the nuclear agreement that's been reached with Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, as protocols and inspection requirements are for "the lifetime of this agreement" and will not expire.
"There is a 10-year extra-strong restraint on what they can do," Kerry told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "There's a 25-year restraint, which requires all their uranium to be tracked from the mine to the grave ... so Iran is never free to go move towards a weapon."
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The secretary of state also denied claims being made that the agreement will encourage other nations, especially Saudi Arabia and possibly Egypt and Turkey to join in the arms race and create a nuclear proliferation situation in the Middle East.
"I really believe the fastest way to a genuine arms race in Middle East is not to have this agreement," said Kerry.
"Because if you don't have this agreement, Iran has already made clear what its direction is, and that is a direction that is only slowed down or stopped by this agreement."
Without the additional 150 inspectors going into Iran that the deal calls for, he continued, and without inspection requirements under international law, "that is what will provoke each of those nations' to say 'uh-oh, these guys are free and moving in a direction we know,'" said Kerry.
And while many people don't trust Iran to live up to its side of the agreement for even a short time, or even walk away from the deal after collecting money that's being released three years from now, Kerry said "they're in very serious trouble if they do that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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