Kerry pushes back against critics of Iran deal

Secretary of State John Kerry, center, leaves a classified briefing for all House members on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Wednesday, July 22, 2015, to head to a Senate briefing to speak about the deal reached to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions.
Secretary of State John Kerry, center, leaves a classified briefing for all House members on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Wednesday, July 22, 2015, to head to a Senate briefing to speak about the deal reached to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry bluntly challenged critics of the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran on Thursday, calling it "fantasy, plain and simple," to think the United States failed to hold out for a better deal at the bargaining table.

"Let me underscore, the alternative to the deal we've reached isn't what we're seeing ads for on TV," he said at the first public hearing on the deal to lift economic and other sanctions in exchange for concessions of the Islamic State's nuclear program. He was referring commercials aired by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee urging lawmakers to reject the deal.

"It isn't a better deal, some sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran's complete capitulation," Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He spoke after Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and other Republicans spoke scornfully of the administration's claim that the only alternative to the deal that was reached was a war with Iran.

Read Friday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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