President Obama defended his bid for a nuclear deal with Iran in an interview released Thursday by noting that he has a personal interest in seeing it succeed.
“Look, 20 years from now, I’m still going to be around, God willing. If Iran has a nuclear weapon, it’s my name on this,” he told the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. “I think it’s fair to say that in addition to our profound national-security interests, I have a personal interest in locking this down.”
Obama’s comments aren’t likely to soothe critics of the deal, who have accused the president of making the talks with Tehran too much of a personal affair, even though they are being conducted in conjunction with Germany and the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
Distrust of the president’s negotiating strategy led both houses of Congress this month to pass by overwhelming bipartisan majorities legislation that would require him to submit any nuclear deal to lawmakers for review. The legislation, which is awaiting Obama’s signature, would also require an effective two-thirds majority in both chambers to block any deal.
In the interview conducted Tuesday, Obama defended one of the most controversial aspects of a potential deal: the fact that Iran will receive more than $100 billion in frozen assets, along with relief from international sanctions that have impeded its access to global oil and financial markets. In exchange, Iran would mothball much of its nuclear program for 10 years under conditions that even neutral experts say may not prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
Members of Congress, Israel and Arab allies all have expressed serious concerns that the sanctions relief will boost Tehran’s ability to support terrorism and undermine governments throughout the Middle East, and would prove difficult, if not impossible, to reverse if Iran cheats on any deal.
“The point we simply make to them is: It is not a mathematical formula whereby [Iranian leaders] get a certain amount of sanctions relief and automatically they’re causing more problems in the neighborhood,” Obama said, noting that much of Iran’s destabilizing activities are “low-cost” and have been able to continue under international sanctions.
