Vice President-elect Joe Biden is filling his cabinet, picking many long-time or “Deep State” government retreads, including former Secretary of State John Kerry to be his “Presidential Envoy for Climate.”
Florida Rep. Ted Deutch (D), who has been one of the strongest advocates of climate change, welcomes Biden’s creation of the Climate Czar position in his cabinet and believes that Kerry is more than qualified for the job and ready to tackle the issue head-on with his past experience and existing relationships.
"In appointing a Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the @JoeBiden @SenKamalaHarris administration makes clear climate is a significant national security priority," stated Kerry "@JohnKerry’s decades of work on the issue & relationships will ensure no time is wasted in tackling this threat"
Kerry does have a history of working with friends and foes around the world, but while he served as President Obama’s Secretary of State, he along with President Barack Obama and former Vice President Biden helped draft the controversial Iran nuclear deal that President Trump back out of, and that many pro-Israel members of Congress, including Rep. Deutch, voted against.
Deutch put out a scathing rebuke of the Obama/Biden Iran deal, mainly because us “the unwarranted giveaways” Iran received in the deal.
“No one denies Iran’s support for the world’s most notorious terrorist groups. No one disputes Iran’s destabilizing influence in the Middle East or role in killing Americans. And because no one trusts Iran not to cheat in anyway it can, the fact that this deal makes it nearly impossible to reinstate sanctions of today’s intensity is beyond alarming.
The unwarranted giveaways for Iran tucked inside this deal are also concerning. Lifting the arms embargo in five years lets Iran procure the sophisticated missile defense systems they need to guard the nuclear weapons they want. And suspending the ballistic weapons ban after eight years allows Iran to develop the technology to deliver a weapon anywhere in the world.
This deal may temporarily slow Iran’s nuclear enrichment, but it speeds up the enrichment of the Revolutionary Guard and the Iranian terror proxies that endanger security and stability in the Middle East.
There are different predictions about what will happen if Congress rejects this deal. But the consequences of approving it aren’t up for debate. Opening Iran up to foreign investment, increasing its oil exports, and unfreezing over $100 billion in assets means more money for Hamas for building terror tunnels in Gaza, more weapons for Hezbollah in Lebanon, more slaughter in Syria, and more violence worldwide.
After a decade in public life working to stop Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons, I cannot support a deal giving Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief – in return for letting it maintain an advanced nuclear program and the infrastructure of a threshold nuclear state.”
