Deal Focuses on Preventing Iran from Having a Nuclear Weapon
Secretary of State
SECRETARY KERRY: We felt that we had to keep this targeted on the greatest threat of all that you’ve just defined, which is the potential of their having a nuclear weapon. And if indeed they’re meaning to translate their slogans of “death to America, death to Israel” into policy, then getting rid of the nuclear weapon is everybody’s first imperative here. So that’s what we focused on because we knew that you could get tangled up. Our definition – one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. You can be fighting forever on the issue of Sunni/Shia definitions of who’s protecting whom, and you won’t get anywhere. You literally will not get there. That’s why we separated those activities. . Now, that does not --
CHAIRMAN MCCAIN: Senator --
SECRETARY KERRY: -- that does not reduce our commitment, as we’ve defined here again and again, to push back on every one of those activities. But it’s easier to push back against an Iran that doesn’t have a nuclear weapon than one that does.