U.S. President Barack Obama stated bluntly Tuesday morning that he would not tolerate any attempts by American lawmakers to modify or neutralize the new accord with Iran signed in Vienna by Secretary of State John Kerry and five other nations.
“I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal,” Obama stated clearly in a live speech broadcast from the White House not only to the nation, but also live in Iran.
Obama saved that warning till the very end of his speech, which was dedicated primarily to a sales pitch designed to persuade the American people the agreement signed in Vienna is one that will block Iran from creating an atomic bomb.
Nowhere in his speech did the president point out that Iran has already amassed enough fissile material to be able to create at least 10 atomic bombs within a two to three month breakout period. The current agreement expands that breakout period to approximately one year at most and reduces the amount of fissile material available to create such an arsenal.
The president also did not mention that although an agreement was signed today between the U.S., Iran and five other world powers, there has yet to be a completed agreement between Iran and the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Talks between the Islamic Republic and Tehran are to continue for another three months at least.
Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of the nation’s Security Cabinet in the late afternoon following the announcement. “The world is a much more dangerous place today than it was yesterday,” Netanyahu told reporters as he headed into the meeting.
Today, after two years of negotiations, the United States together with our international partners, has achieved something that decades of animosity has not. A comprehensive long term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
This deal demonstrates that American diplomacy can bring about real and meaningful change; change that makes our country and the world safer and more secure.
This deal is also in line with a tradition of American leadership.
“Because of this deal we will for the first time be in a position to verify all of these commitments,” he said. “That means this deal is not built on trust. It is built on verification.”
“Inspectors will have 24/7 access to Iran’s key nuclear facilities. Iran (sic) will have access to Iran’s entire nuclear supply chain, its uranium mines, its melts, its conversion facility, and its centrifuge manufacturing storage facilities.
“This ensures that Iran will not be able to divert materials from known facilities to covert ones. Some of these transparency measures will be in place for 25 years.
“Because of this deal, inspectors will also be able to access any suspicious location. Put simply the organization responsible for the inspections, the IAEA, will have access where necessary, when necessary.
“That arrangement is permanent.
“As Iran takes steps to implement this deal they will receive relief from the sanctions we put in place because of Iran’s nuclear program, both America’s own sanctions, and sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. This relief will be phased in.
“Iran must complete key nuclear steps before it begins to receive new sanctions relief. And over the course of the next decade Iran must abide by the deal before additional sanctions are lifted.
“All of this will be memorialized and endorsed in a new United Nations Security Council resolution.
“And if Iran violates the deal all these sanctions will snap back into place. So there’s a very clean incentive for Iran to follow through, and there are very real consequences for a violation.