Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) pressed Wendy Sherman over the Iran ‘deal or war’ dichotomy, often recited by the Obama administration. Photo: Wikipedia.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) grilled Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman on the Obama administration’s oft-repeated dichotomy of either the Iran nuclear deal, or war.

“Madame secretary, uh, ‘This agreement or war — is that the choice? Simple ‘yes’ or ‘no,'” Menendez asked.

Sherman responded, “I don’t think it’s a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no,'” before being cut off by Menendez, who continued, “If you can’t give me a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to, ‘It’s either this agreement or war,’ and since I don’t have unlimited time, so if you had not struck an agreement with Iran, would we be at war with Iran?”

Sherman responded, “I believe that the chances that we would be down the road to war would go up exponentially.”

Menendez pressed back, saying, “So you’re saying, compared to other witnesses who have served in the administration in the past, who supported the agreement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and have been asked the same question, and they have unequivocally easily said, ‘No, it’s not this or war,’ so you have a view that it is this [deal] or war? … Further down the path, a year from now, two years from now, three years?”

“I don’t think any of us can predict the future in that way,” said Sherrman.

Later, Menendez questioned whether Iran actually believes a credible military threat of force remains on the table.

“I think there is real doubt, including if you were to get an intelligence briefing,” he said.

“I don’t agree with that at all,” Sherman responded.