President Obama continues his effort to convince skeptical lawmakers that the U.S. nuclear agreement with Iran is effective and will stave off development of nuclear weapons by the Iranians. The president is speaking on the issue during a LIVE 1 p.m. news conference today, which WGBH 89.7 will air LIVE during it's program Boston Public Radio with Jim Braude and Margery Egan.
Political observers are labeling the Iran nuclear pact the most significant and defining foreign relations moment of President Obama’s presidency. Critics see it as a painful compromise and Israel calls it a "stunning historic mistake" that leaves it vulnerable to a nuclear attack by Iran.
“I think it will lesson the probability of war between Iran and the United States …what President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have done here is put diplomacy first,” says Nicholas Burns, Harvard Kennedy School of Government Professor of Diplomacy and International Relations.
Burns, who serves on Sec. Kerry’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and served as Iran Nuclear Negotiator for the George W. Bush administration, tells WGBH Morning Edition host Bob Seay during an interview Wednesday morning,” There’s no reason for war, the Iranians are not on the cusp of a nuclear weapon. They have the capacity to build ward it, but this agreement will freeze their nuclear program for ten years.”
The controversial nuclear deal U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry helped secure with Iran is getting vehement reaction from all corners of the world.
Burns was in Washington D.C. Tuesday testifying before members of Congress as the solo advocate for the agreement. He says, “This was not a perfect agreement, no agreement is. There were some painful compromises made by the United States and the Europeans, including making sure the inspection regime will work.”
Burns says the agreement prohibits Iran from having the necessary grade uranium to construct a nuclear weapon.
To listen to the entire interview with Professor Burns and WGBH Bob Seay click on the audio link above.
WGBH's program Boston Public Radio will carrying the President's LIVE address beginning at 1 p.m. on 89.7
