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John McCain: Kerry 'Delusional' on Claims in Iran Deal
Friday, April 10, 2015 07:16 AM
By: Melanie Batley
Secretary of State John Kerry is "delusional" when it comes to forging the Iranian nuclear deal, said Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain.
McCain said he believes there is more to the negotiations than is currently known, Politico reported.
"I think you're going to find out that they had never agreed to the things that John Kerry claimed that they had," McCain told radio show host Hugh Hewitt, according to Politico.
"So in a way, I can't blame the Ayatollah, because I don't think they ever agreed to it, and I think John Kerry tried to come back and sell a bill of goods, hoping maybe that the Iranians wouldn't say much about it."
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted on Wednesday that it was agreed that sanctions were to be lifted as soon as the agreement was signed and that inspectors would not be admitted before then. The United States had previously said that sanctions would be phased out.
"It has never been our position that all of the sanctions against Iran should be removed from Day One," Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters earlier in the week, according to Politico.
The State Department echoed those comments, saying that the agreement stipulates that sanctions would be lifted depending on the verification that Iran was taking steps to reduce the number of its centrifuges and lower its levels of uranium enrichment.
"Under the agreed-upon parameters, sanctions will be suspended in a phased manner upon verification that Iran has met specific commitment under a finalized joint comprehensive plan of action," Jeff Rathke, a spokesman for the State Department said, according to Politico.
For his part, McCain said he would "never" have been at the negotiating table with Iran had he become president.
"I knew that things were going to be bad when I lost in 2008, OK?" he told Hewitt, according to Politico. "But if you take a look at the map of the world in January of 2009 and look at the world today, my friend, you and I even haven't had a chance to talk about the shameful, disgraceful actions of us not giving the Ukrainians weapons to defend themselves.
"That's a shameful chapter."
