WASHINGTON — Former NSA and CIA chief Michael Hayden said Sunday that the Obama administration should be honest about its nuke deal with Iran, saying the pact recognizes the Islamic regime’s right to enrich uranium.
“Let’s be honest with ourselves,” Hayden said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We have accepted Iranian uranium enrichment. There is no question about that.”
Hayden’s assessment of the deal contradicted Secretary of State John Kerry, who flat-out denied that the historic agreement struck last week had given the nod to Iran’s enrichment program.
“There is no right to enrich. We do not recognize a right to enrich,” Kerry said last week on ABC’s “This Week.”
Hayden, a retired Air Force four-star general, said that the agreement stops short of the United Nations Security Council resolution that barred Iran from enriching uranium.
“At the end of the day, Iran’s going to be a nuclear threshold state,” he said.
Hayden, who headed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005 and the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006 to 2009, nevertheless said he backs the deal that temporarily stalls Iran’s nuclear program and slightly eases economic sanctions while talks continue for another six months.
“We have hit the ‘pause’ button. Now we’ve got to negotiate hitting the ‘delete’ button with them,” he said.