DHAKA: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday it would be a huge mistake if Israel decided to take unilateral military action against Iran over its nuclear program in the future.

Kerry was asked in an NBC Today show interview if the nuclear deal reached last week between Iran and six world powers would make it more likely that Israel might attempt a military or cyber attack on Tehran.

‘That’d be an enormous mistake, a huge mistake with grave consequences for Israel and for the region, and I don’t think it’s necessary,’ Kerry said, reports Gulf News.

On Thursday, Kerry said it is ‘fantasy plain and simple’ to claim that President Barack Obama failed to insist on enough restraints on Iran’s nuclear program before agreeing to lift economic sanctions long in place.

He challenged Republican lawmakers who want to torpedo the deal, saying ‘So what’s your plan? ... Totally go to war?’

Republicans were unpersuaded — and said so — at an occasionally contentious Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that marked the opening of a new phase in the administration’s drive to prevent Congress from undermining the accord.

‘You guys have been bamboozled’, said Senator Jim Risch, a Republican, complaining that the agreement wouldn’t permit neutral testing at Iran’s Parchin military complex to guard against cheating.

The deal, reached earlier this month, will take effect unless Congress blocks it. Republicans in control of the House and Senate hope to do that by passing legislation in September to prevent Obama from lifting sanctions that lawmakers put in place over several years.

Obama has promised to veto any such bill. That would lead to a vote to override his veto, and the administration is searching for 34 votes in the Senate or 146 in the House to assure a veto would stick.

BDST: 1706 HRS, JULY 25, 2015
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