Kerry in 2013 on Iran Talks: ‘We’ll Be Negotiating Dismantling’ Its Nuclear Program

NOVEMBER 24, 2013: 

STEPHANOPOULUS: “Mr. Secretary, the big question right now: Will this agreement really stop the Iranian nuclear program in its tracks? We’ve already got some critics in Congress suggesting it won’t. Marco Rubio says it will not freeze the Iranian nuclear program, makes a nuclear Iran more not less likely. Lindsey Graham says unless the deal requires dismantling centrifuges, we haven’t gained anything. Your response?”
KERRY: “This negotiation is not the art of fantasy or the art of the ideal. It’s the art of the possible, which is verifiable and clear in its capacity to be able to make Israel and the region safer. The fact is that Iran’s ability to break out, George, will expand under this program. Therefore, Israel will be safer, the region will be safer. Iran’s 20 percent uranium will be destroyed, therefore they are safer. Iran’s 3.5 percent uranium stock will be frozen at its current level, and the centrifuges will not be able to be installed in places they could otherwise be installed and advance the program.”
STEPHANOPOULUS: “But not dismantle?”
KERRY: “The fact is we will have daily inspections. We will have daily inspections – no, it’s not. That’s correct. That’s the next step. Now, the choice people have is do you want to sit there and argue that you have to dismantle your program before you’ve stopped it, and while you’re arguing about dismantling it, they progress. In 2003, Iran made an offer to the Bush Administration that they would, in fact, do major things with respect to their program. They had 164 centrifuges. Nobody took that – nothing has happened. Therefore, here we are in 2013 – they have 19,000 centrifuges and they’re closer to a weapon. You cannot sit there and pretend that you’re just going to get the thing you want while they continue to move towards the program that they’ve been chasing. We’ve actually succeeded through the sanctions that Congress put in place to be able to get to a point where we’re locking in knowledgeably what their current level is and forcing them to go backwards. And while we go through these next six months, we will be negotiating the dismantling; we will be negotiating the limitations. But you can’t always start where you want to wind up. And most people I’ve talked to who’ve looked at this carefully say the alternative that they’re proposing just doesn’t work.”