Top French official: If Congress rejects Iran deal, a better deal could be achieved – Middle East – Jerusalem Post
Top French official: If Congress rejects Iran deal, a better deal could be achieved
Hollande’s senior adviser expresses misgivings about the nuclear deal reached with Iran.
Contrary to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s warnings on the grim consequences that would result if Congress rejects the nuclear deal reached with Iran earlier this month, one senior French security official thinks that such a move by the US legislature could bring about a better deal.
A report in Bloomberg View details a meeting held earlier this month in Paris between two US lawmakers and Jacque Audibert, the senior diplomatic adviser to French President Francois Hollande.
The lawmakers, Democrat Loretta Sanchez and Republican Mike Turner, both members of the House Armed Services Committee, met with the French official in Paris earlier this month to discuss the Iran deal.
According to both lawmakers Audibert expressed support for the deal overall, “but also directly disputed Kerry’s claim that a Congressional rejection of the Iran deal would result in the worst of all worlds, the collapse of sanctions and Iran racing to the bomb without restrictions.”
“He basically said, if Congress votes this down, there will be some saber-rattling and some chaos for a year or two, but in the end nothing will change and Iran will come back to the table to negotiate again and that would be to our advantage,” Sanchez told Josh Rogin of Bloomberg View.
“He thought if the Congress voted it down, that we could get a better deal,” Sanchez added.
Bloomberg’s Rogin wrote in his report that a spokesman for the French embassy in Washington issued a statement saying it “formally denies the content of the remarks.”
According to the report, Audibert also disagreed with Kerry’s assertion that if the Congress doesn’t lift US sanctions against Iran, the international sanctions regime would collapse and American competitors would rush into Iran to do business.
Audibert reportedly told Sanchez and Turner that if US sanctions were kept in place, it would effectively prevent the West from doing extensive business in Iran.
“I asked him specifically what the Europeans would do, and his comment was that the way the US sanctions are set in, he didn’t see an entity or a country going against them, that the risk was too high,” Sanchez said.
According to the report, Audibert also expressed to Sanchez and Turner some misgivings about the deal that was reached with Iran, including his belief that the deal should have been negotiated to last forever, not start to expire in as few as 10 years. He also told the lawmakers that “he didn’t understand why Iran needed more than 5,000 centrifuges for a peaceful nuclear program.” In addition, the French official reportedly “expressed concerns about the robustness of the inspections and verification regime under the deal, according to the lawmakers.”
“We have Kerry saying the French are just going to bust in there and do this and this, and here we have somebody who seems to disagree with that,” Sanchez told Bloomberg View.
According to the report, upon returning to the US from France earlier this month, Turner confronted Kerry in a closed door briefing with the question as to whether he was surprised with Audibert’s belief that the world powers could have gotten a better deal with Iran.
“The secretary appeared surprised and had no good answer as to why the national security adviser of France had a completely different position than what the secretary told us the same day,” Turner told Rogin.
Kerry earlier this week told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that if Congress rejected the nuclear agreement reached in Vienna the United States would be isolated and the the possibility of war would be “almost inevitable.”
“If we walk away, we walk away alone. Our partners are not going to be with us. Instead they’ll walk away from the tough multilateral sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table in the first place,” Kerry said.
The secretary of state asserted that Iran would never capitulate under endless sanctions pressure.
“I’ve heard people talk about dismantling [the Iranian] program,” Kerry added. “That’s not going to happen.”
Congress began a 60-day review period last week, during which it may choose to vote to approve or disapprove of the deal. A resolution of disapproval would have to come to a second vote with two-thirds support of both chambers in order to overcome a presidential veto.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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WarSclerotic 
July 31, 2015 at 4:33 PM
Pressure from the USA !
July 31, 2015 at 4:39 PM
The shoulder offer still stands .
July 31, 2015 at 5:00 PM
However, too often “no” is a knee-jerk response formed out of a preexisting habit; conflict, often escalating to argument, is not based out of mutual respect; and debate is not exercised as a tool for communicating differing opinions, but rather served as an excuse for stubbornly representing individual agenda and driving one’s thoughts down a sparring partner’s gullet- the concept of changing someone’s mind as opposed to compromise, exploration, and discovery.
July 31, 2015 at 5:13 PM
pure empathy from my side , but not for disagreeing but for crying like a little emotional child who had just discovered that the red nose of Rudolf was not real .
July 31, 2015 at 6:34 PM
Not only now,
Like this one
Of course! I should have known. I was thinking the USA was only responsible for global warming, squeezing Russia, and succumbing to Iran. Silly me.
July 31, 2015 at 7:29 PM
Liking has nothing to do with it, but as i said before and explain it in several different ways, the USA is not the shining house on the hill.
And thinking you are or as nation in exceptional therms is dangerous and will blind you for the facts from the past and block the learning process.
And trough blocking of that learning process, you are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again.
You are not able to see this, blocked by a emotional curtain or as i said a virus of exceptional Americanism, but it is not only you, but it is a broad attitude in the USA , by the people and in the politics.
And you reaction show again perfectly , how correct my comments are, your reaction is emotional and fact less.childish .
And if you can not stand the heat stay out of the kitchen .
But i still like you , that is why i have empathy for you .
Not sympathy because a person with your mental capacity,s must be able to think outside his emotional being and make logical conclusion on a factual base .
July 31, 2015 at 5:16 PM
Reblogged this on Boudica2015 and commented:
Top French official: If Congress rejects Iran deal, a better deal could be achieved – Middle East – Jerusalem Post