RA Leadership Voices Concern; Calls for Thoughtful Review of Iran Agreement

NEW YORK – The United States, along with its P5+1 partners, announced Tuesday that a deal with Iran had been reached to curtail that country from obtaining nuclear weapons. In response, the Rabbinical Assembly, the association for Conservative/Masorti rabbis released the following statement from its president, Rabbi William Gershon, and executive vice president, Julie Schonfeld.

The Rabbinical Assembly has long been supportive of a diplomatic solution to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons and we recognize the hard work by the Obama administration and Secretary John Kerry, notwithstanding our reservations about the deal as it is currently being reported.

President Obama and his team of negotiators have repeatedly said that any deal with Iran must shut down Iran's uranium enrichment pathway to a weapon, cut off all four of Iran's potential pathways to a bomb, and track Iran's nuclear activities with unprecedented transparency and robust inspections throughout its nuclear supply chain. With time, details of this deal will be fully reviewed and any deal that does not at least meet these parameters should be rejected. Iran, a leading state sponsor of terror, must not be able to acquire nuclear weapons. A nuclear armed Iran would be a grave danger to the national security interests of the United States and its allies around the world including Israel. We must not enable this dangerous regime to increase its power through nuclear weapons.

Now, we turn to Congress to carefully review and assess this proposed agreement and call on our representatives to ensure that Iran will be prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon.