There Will Be Plenty Of Time To Discuss Iran Deal After It’s Signed

By US Secretary of State John Kerry

The hullabaloo surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this past week provides just the latest example of the misguided assumptions governing discourse of a developing agreement with Iran over its nuclear program. The heightened rhetoric obscures one very basic fact: there will be plenty of time to discuss the deal with Iran at length once it is signed.

Neither the president nor I understand the sense of urgency, even panic, surrounding this issue. By all means, talk to Congressmen. Pontificate on the pros and cons of an accord until you’re blue in the face. But there is no reason to pretend all that bloviating needs to be accomplished this minute. Wait a few weeks. Wait a few months. Discussion of this issue is far too important to rush into. Essentially, we have until the end of time to talk about it, so let’s just calm down and be a little circumspect.

No one claims that the Iranian nuclear program is not a concern, nor that it is not important to put on the table exactly what is at stake in the complex web of these negotiations: sanctions, weapons capability, ballistic missile technology, terrorism, regional hegemony, curbing Islamic radicalism, oil, and a potential arms race are all crucial subjects to discuss, and discuss them we will – after reaching an agreement with the Islamic Republic on the extent to which the coalition of Western powers will allow them to pursue their agendas on all those fronts.

The president is well aware of the criticism of his policies in this arena, from both domestic and foreign figures. Mr. Netanyahu may be the most prominent international leader to express opposition to an emerging deal, but he is hardly the only one. The Gulf states all have their issues with a deal that would, allegedly, sign away the entire region to growing Iranian influence, but none of that opposition changes the basic fact that we can all talk about such a deal when it is already in place. Doing so in the absence of such a deal would be a waste of everyone’s time and energy.

From a practical standpoint, the wisest course of action at this point involves a measured, disciplined level of discussion. Alarmist rhetoric such as Mr. Netanyahu’s, not to mention rash steps such as Saudi Arabia’s recent agreement with South Korea to develop nuclear technology, detract from the very real point that there will be all the time in the world to talk about the deal with Iran after the president approves it.

All the second-guessing, the criticism, the worst-case-scenarioing, the dramatic denunciations, the fiery, standing-ovation-punctuated orations to joint sessions of Congress – that can wait. In the meantime, we have an agreement to negotiate. So please let us do our job on that front.

Everything else can wait. Don’t you worry your pretty little heads about all that right now.