No alternative to Iran nuclear conclusion: Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz have defended the nuclear conclusion they reached with Iran last week, saying there is no viable alternative to avoid war in the Middle East.

In a series of interviews aired on Sunday, the top US officials defended the nuclear accord, in which Iran agreed to temporary restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

“The real fear of that region should be that you don’t have the deal…, and the greater likelihood is what the [US] president said the other day; you will have a war,” Kerry said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Iran and the P5+1 group -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany –  reached a conclusion on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14 in the Austrian capital of Vienna following days of intensive talks over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The nuclear agreement has come under heavy criticism from Republicans in Congress, which could vote to reject it; though it is unlike they would get enough votes to override a presidential veto.

Kerry compared the nuclear negotiations with Iran to historic breakthroughs in talks with the former Soviet Union and China during the Cold War. 

The top diplomat, however, said that the United States and Iran will remain adversaries and that Washington will continue to counter Iran’s support for anti-Israel resistance movements and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Moniz, the energy secretary, also defended the nuclear agreement with Iran.

“We are better off forever in terms of Iranian nuclear activity under this agreement than we would be without it,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.