Kerry warns against scraping Iran nuclear deal

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday warned the incoming administration against upending the Iran nuclear deal, saying that such move could cause conflict and damage US credibility.

Speaking at an event at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, Kerry said he is "absolutely confident" that Tehran's route to building a nuclear weapon has been blocked after the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal reached in 2015, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Now, if that were just arbitrarily undone, we are going back to a place of conflict almost immediately," Kerry was quoted as saying.

"We'll also reduce our credibility in the world, because I suspect the Russians and the Chinese and the French and the Germans and the British will just continue the deal," he said.

"Then you're right back where you were, where we had pressures on us to go bomb Iran. Believe me, there were pressures. So it doesn't make sense, and I believe reason will win out," the top US diplomat said.

US President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly criticised the Iran nuclear deal during his campaign last year, calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated."

He also suggested that he would force Iran to return to the negotiating table or risk the accord being dismantled.

--IANS

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