United kingdom, our strong ally support this . Yes. Does australia, one of our strongest allies support this accord . Yes. Does germany support this accord tphao yes. Does france support this accord . Yes. Does new zealand support this accord . I have not seen their statement. They are on the Security Council, and they voted for it. Oh, in the vote, yes. Either by voice support or a vote. Did jordan voice its support in their vote . Yes. Did spain, did nigeria and lithuania . Yes. You get the drift. If you were bamboozled, the world has been bamboozled. Thats ridiculous and unfair and wrong. You can disagree for sure with aspects of this agreement but i think we need to stay away from that kind of rhetoric. Now, i have the agreement right here and i have read it and one thing that i was surprised as i sat down to read it i thought you know, will i be able to understand this document. Its very understandable. I want to say cite a couple things in here. Iran reaffirms under no circumstances will iran ever seek, develop or acquire any Nuclear Weapons. Thats one phrase. Another one is and thats this one is number 16. Iran will not engage in activities including at the rnd level that could contribute to the development of a Nuclear Explosive device including uranium or plutonium and thats in this accord. So one of the things i want to do is send out a message to iran. Not to the people of iran, who i think are really good people, but to those folks there that are so dangerous, and that is you said it real clearly, and if you dont live up to it, i guarantee you the consequences will not be pretty and i think thats an Important Message that has to go out, because they signed it and they said it and the whole world is watching them. Secretary kerry i authored the u. S. Israel Strategic Partnership act, and president obama signed both. It means that we stand shoulder to shoulder with our closest ally and we know israel does not like this agreement. I am very glad you read those comments of the paper. I would hope as somebody who has stood so i was going to say tall, but its hard for me to say that. Stood so tall for this relationship with israel. At the end of the day, i think this relationship is going to be even more strengthened. I want to get your view on that, because i know that ash carter went to israel. Do you have anything to report about that meeting and how that went . Well secretary carter went with the intention of laying out and beginning a dialogue in great detail, which he did with the defense minister of israel. They had, i think, almost a daylong meeting in which they discussed the many ways in which we are prepared to work with israel understanding the obviously understanding the very dangerous dynamics of the region right now. And secretary carter, in fact, went up to review with them what the threat is currently from isil, daesh, and so forth. These are all things we are prepared to push back on in any number of ways, and we also believe theres the potential of a kind of new alignment in the region, and i will be going to speak speak. I want to press you on that, because we were reading about saudi arabias words today in the press and i just i dont i have not had time to check it out and i wanted to ask you, do you believe the saudis are supportive now despite the fact they review iran as aversaryadversary. I met with the foreign minister a few days ago and he indicated to me they were prepared to support it if certain things are going to happen. Those things i believe are going to happen. I anticipate that. Senator, sorry to divert but i forgot the quote and i dont want to be accused of being a person saying the choice is military or otherwise. Anybody who followed the events in iran has to admit truthfully that he never believed iran would ever agree to discuss these issues let alone agree to the measures imposed on them by the world powers. The alternative would be military strikes which would plunge the region into deeper insecurity and would likely not be successful he said. So were not alone in describing that. This does not end the possibility of a confrontation with iran, obviously, depending on the choices they make. I want to say, thank Wendy Sherman for me personally. Donald trump said something why dont you bring women into the negotiations, it would go much better. She is fantastic and wish she was here. She is absolutely spectacular. She did an extraordinary job. We would not be where we are without wendy and jack and an incredible team, a team, by the way, all across the government of the United States experts whose life is spent analyzing iran and analyzing nuclear prolive nation that came from the Energy Department and Intelligence Community and from the state department elsewhere, all who worked together, and believe me theyre a savvy group of people and nobody pulled any wool over their eyes. Thank you. Senator rubio. Thank you, thank you all for being here today. Secretary kerry the administration publicly stated that you expect this deal is going to be rejected by majorities in both houses of congress, and you said while winning approval of congress would be nice your goal is to basically convince enough democrats so you can override a detail so as far as the administration is concerned this is a done deal. As far as american sanctions are concerned this is a deal whose survival is not guaranteed beyond the term of the president , and i hope the next president is somebody that will remove the National Security waiver and reempose the congressional sanctions passed by congress because this deal is fundamentally flawed. I believe it weakens our National Security and makes the world a more dangerous place and throughout the process by the way, this administration in my opinion repeatedly capitulated on important items and the examples are endless, and it allows what we were pressing about inspections. I understand all the disputes about the terms but clearly there was a perception created among my colleagues and both sides of the i will that we were pressing for anytime anywhere inspections, and then the snapback sanctions are also hollow. We have a complicated 24day iran will test and exploit over and over again. They know that once the International Sanctions are gone they will be impossible to snap back. Quote, once the sanctions collapse it will be impossible to reconstruct it and he bragged earlier this week that violations of the agreement would not be prosecuted. No matter what happens iran will keep the more than billions of dollars its going to receive up front as a signing bonus, and iran will be allowed to continue to develop longrange ballistic weapons for nuclear warfare. All of these promises that they are making about never pursuing a weapon and they are all revealed as lies when they are looking at making a longrange rocket to put a Nuclear War Head on them. And it allows the arms embargo to end. On terrorism, this deal provides possibly hundreds of billions to a regime that directly threatens the interests of the United States and our allies and nothing holds iran to account for human rights. Quite the opposite. The regime is being rewarded for its atrocious human rights record. I know you said you brought up the american hostages in every negotiation, and we thank you for that, but this deal brought no new information regarding loved ones whereabouts. And in fact, you personally met and negotiated with an iranian official who impressed on jasons case and lied to the world and lied to the world by saying we dont jail people for their opinions. This deal does nothing for the marine corps charge who dictated a letter from the prison that said, quote, secretary kerry sits politely with the iranians and shaking hands to save them from economic meltdown, unquote as iran adds hostages and does nothing for the pastor whose only crime was practicing his religion. The only people this deal does anything for directly are the iranian officials that want to continue to jail and execute their people and who hate israel and hope to wipe them from the has not planet and want to help assad slaughter people. Secretary kerry i do not fault you for trying to strike a deal for iran, i dont. I do fault the president for striking a terrible deal with iran. I hope enough of my democratic colleagues can be persuaded to vote against this deal. The Iranian Regime and the world should know this deal is your deal with iran i mean yours meaning this administration and the next president is under no legal or moral obligation to live up to it. The Iranian Regime and the world who know the majority of the members of this congress do not support this deal and the deal could go away on the day that president obama leaves office. In that realm, i wanted to ask about this. If you today, are a company that after this deal is signed and go into iran and build a manufacturing facility and the next president of the United States lifts the security waiver or iran violates the deal do the sanctions supply against that facility Going Forward . If a company goes into iran after this deal and builds a manufacturing facility of any kind, car batteries, and iran violates the deal and the sanctions kick back in, will that facility be able to continue to operate without facing sanctions . Senator if a company acts to go in and do business with iran while the sanctions are lifting that would be permitted. If iran violates the deal and the sanctions snap back they would be able to continue to the reason why its important, its important for companies anywhere in the world to know that whatever investment they make in iran they risking it, and they are betting on the hope that iran never violates the deal and they are also hoping that the next president of the United States does not reimpose u. S. Congressional sanctions by which they would become a sanction entity. One more specific question about the deal. Theres a document that states those that negotiated the deal are prepared to cooperate with iran on the implementation on Nuclear Security guidelines and best practices and 10. 2 reads cooperation through training and workshops to strengthen irans ability to protect against and respond to Nuclear Security threats including sabotage and physical protection systems. Here is my question. If israel decides it doesnt like this deal and it wants to sabotage an Iranian Nuclear program or facility, does this deal that we have just signed obligate us to help iran defend itself against israeli sabotage or the sabotage of any other country in the world . The i believe that refers to things like physical security and safeguards all of our options and those of our allies and friends will remain in place. Well, i guess thats my point. If israel conducts an air strike against the physical facility does this deal, the way i read it, does it require us to help iran protect and respond to that threat . No. It does not . No. The purpose of that is to be able to have longerterm guarantees as we enter a world in which cyber warfare is increasingly a concern for everybody that if you are going to have a nuclear capacity, you clearly want to be able to make sure that those are adequately protected. But i can assure you, we will coordinate in every possible way with israel with respect to israels concern. If israel conducts a cyber attack against the Iranian Nuclear program are we obligated to help defend them . No, i assure you that people will be coordinating closely with israel as we do on every aspect. Thats not how i read that. I dont see any way its possible well be in con confluctuate with sbralisrael with what we want to do there. I listened to your long list of objections about it, but theres no alternative that you or anyone else has proposed. I sure have. I have secretary kerry. Im confident the next president of the United States will have enough common sense if this is being applied prop ir lyerproperly, theyre not going to arbitrarily they might want to engage and if theres a way to strengthen or do something. I cant imagine someone arbitrarily deciding lets go back to where we are where they are free to do whatever they want, without any inspections without any restraint or insight. I dont think any president would do that. Before you signed this deal, iran was already in violation of existing mandates and restrictions, including things they signed on to. And this deal brings them back into compliance. If they dont live up to it, every option we have today is on the table. So we dont lose anything here. The way we lose is by rejecting the deal because then you have no restraints no sanctions, no insight, no inspectors, no reduction of their stockpile. If you want to conveniently forget the fact they had enough fissile material to build 10 to 12 bombs, thats the threat to israel. If you go back to that without any alternative other than what you know, most people think is going to be the alternative, which is confrontation. Nobody has a plan thats articulated and reasonable as to how youre going to strengthen this do something more when the Supreme Leader of iran and president of iran and others think theyve signed an agreement with the world. The rest of the world thinks its a good agreement. If you think the ayatollah will come back and negotiate again with an american, thats fantasy. Youre never going to see that. We will have proven were not trustworthy. We have 535 secretaryies of state. You cant deal with anybody. Thats going to do a whole lot to people that matter in the world. Thats whats at stake here. Mr. Secretary just to ensure that i have appropriately addressed the situation i want to refrain and say we have been fleeced and not make that thing thats directed at an individual. One of the way we brought them into compliance is that we have agreed to let them do what they are doing and actually agreed to let them do it on an industrialized basis. So i will have to say thats how we brought them into compliance. Senator this is a very important point. Were not alone in this. The Bush Administration proposed the exact same thing. This is not something that president obama just sort of dreamed up and thought was a good idea. June 12th 2008 president bush, through condoleezza rice, who signed the memorandum with the p5 1ed so said that in return heres what we were ready to do. Recognize irans right to Nuclear Energy for peaceful purposes. Treat irans Nuclear Program in the same way as any Nuclear State in the npt once the peaceful nature is restored. Protect Financial Assistance for peaceful Nuclear Energy, including state of the art power reactor, support for r d and legally binding fuel guarantees. Improve relations with iran and support iran in playing a constructive role in international affairs. Think about that. Work with iran and others in the region on confidencebuilding measures and Regional Security. Reaffirmation of the obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force. Cooperation on afghanistan. Steps toward normalization of trade. Civilian projects Civil Aviation cooperation. Assistance in irans social and economic development. All of that was offered by president george w. Bush june 12th 2008 but didnt happen because iran was not the one element that you left out that they did not agree to was enriching. Allowing them to enrich. Senator menendez . Thank you mr. Chairman. Let me start off by saying that i appreciate the enormous work and arduous quest that you have been in pursuit of. And i think that no one would want to be applauding you more than i who has been following iran since my days in the House International committee nearly 20 years ago. As one of the authors of the sanctions regime that are recognized to bring iran to the negotiating table. However, i am concerned that the deal enshrines for iran and in fact commits the International Community over time to assisting iran in developing an industrial Scale NuclearPower Program complete with enrich. While i understand the program will be subject to irans npt, it fails to look at irans history of deception in its Nuclear Program and its violations of the npt and it will in the long run make it harder to demonstrate irans program is not being used for peaceful purpose because iran will have legitimate reasons to have advanced centrifuges and enrichment program. Well have to demonstrate if, in fact, thats the case, that its intention is dual use and not justified by the Nuclear Power program. Thats a much more difficult burden. Mr. Secretary, youve always been skeptical about sanctions. When you were chairman of this committee in a hearing on sanctions legislation that i was authoring, when the administration was vigorously arguing against it your comment was to Wendy Sherman and david cohen, so what you are really saying is this is a very blunt instrument which risks adverse reaction as opposed to a calculated effort. In that hearing i remember i had to come back because i didnt expect that even the question of the amendment was going to come up. And they were there trying to excoriate the effort. It passed 990 and subsequently was embraced as the reason iran has come back to the negotiating table. So let me ask under the sanctions heading paragraph 26 says, and i quote the United StatesAdministration Acting consistent with the respected roles of the president and the congress will refrain from reintroducing or reimposing sanctions specified in annex to, the sanc