John Kerry: If Congress rejects Iran nuclear deal, U.S. will lose 'all credibility'

If Congress fails to approve the Iran nuclear deal, the results will be catastrophic, Secretary of State John Kerry told NPR's Steve Inskeep in a new interview.

"I'm telling you, the U.S. will have lost all credibility," he said. "We will not be in the hunt. And if we then decided to use military [after a deal fails], do you believe the United Nations will be with us? Do you think our European colleagues will support us? Not on your life." If the deal fails, he said, Iran will use it as an excuse to enrich uranium, "claiming it is as a right that they only gave up in the context of negotiations, but since negotiations are dead, they're going to resume their rights. Iran will say, 'Aha, you see!' The Ayatollah will say, 'I told you, you can't trust the West. I told you you can't negotiate with these guys. They will lie to you. They will cheat you. And here they are, they let us down, and the Congress walked away. They have 535 secretaries of state. There's nobody to negotiate with.'"

Kerry said that many believe the Obama Administration was too eager to get a deal with Iran, but Obama told him, "'Remember John, you can walk away.' ... And I did walk away. ... I think the fact is, we got a deal that was achievable beyond people's belief, and that's what you heard from people." He also discussed Cuba, saying that a new president or Congress could roll back Obama's Cuba policy, "But I think it'd be a terrible mistake. The vast majority of the American people believe this is a very good thing to do. ... As time goes on, people will see the benefits that come from this policy. We had diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. We had diplomatic relations with then-called 'Red China.' We have to have relationships with countries to do business. And American citizens get hurt when we don't do that."

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