Former US President Barack Obama was under pressure from certain Middle Eastern leaders to bomb Iran, former US secretary of State John Kerry has revealed.
Speaking at an annual retreat of “mediators and peace process actors” in Oslo, Norway, Kerry said the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers helped Washington prevent war.
“We were hurtling toward conflict,” the former top US diplomat said Tuesday. “I mean, there’s just no other way to describe it.”
“Leaders in the region were saying to me personally, and to the president, President Obama, you should bomb these guys,” Kerry added. “That’s the only way to resolve this issue.”
“And we chose a different path,” he said. “What we did is to find a mutually acceptable way to guarantee that both sides were able to agree on a path forward that met both sides’ needs.”
Kerry then noted that both sides had to abide by the deal and fulfill their obligations under the 2015 deal, known as the…