Twenty-nine top U.S. scientists praised the Iran nuclear deal in a letter to President Obama, while separately, 36 former top U.S. military officers issued an open letter in favor of the plan.
“There is no better option to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon,” said the undated letter signed by retired generals, lieutenant generals, brigadier generals, major generals and rear admirals who served in the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.
“Military action would be less effective than the deal, assuming it is fully implemented,” the letter said. “If the Iranians cheat, our advanced technology, intelligence and the inspections will reveal it, and U.S. military options remain on the table. And if the deal is rejected by America, the Iranians could have a nuclear weapon within a year.”
Signers of the scientists’ letter, which was sent on Aug. 7, include high-level nuclear scientists, physicists and Nobel laureates, the New York Times reported. Among them are Richard Garwin, a physicist who helped design the world’s first hydrogen bomb who is now a Washington adviser on nuclear weapons and arms control, and Siegfried Hecker, who directed the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in New Mexico.
“This is an innovative agreement, with much more stringent constraints than any previously negotiated non-proliferation framework,” read the letter, which said the deal “will advance the cause of peace and security in the Middle East and can serve as a guidepost for future nonproliferation agreements.”
“We congratulate you and your team on negotiating a technically sound, stringent and innovative deal that will provide the necessary assurance in the coming decade and more that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, and provides a basis for further initiatives to raise the barriers to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and around the globe,” the letter concluded. — jta