Secretary of State John Kerry, in a talking point similar to White House official Ben Rhodes earlier this week, claimed on Fox News Sunday he never seen discussed the idea of "anywhere, anytime" inspections in the Iran nuclear deal.
Host Chris Wallace mentioned the 24-day period Iran can stave off inspections as part of the agreement and how that hardly constituted meeting those standards before Kerry rebuked him.
"Well, that's not accurate," Kerry said. "I never, in four years, had a discussion about anywhere, anytime."
Like Rhodes' statement, this contradicts earlier statements made by the Obama administration, and it also makes it painfully clear the White House never thought this extremely important verification measure was ever realistic.
President Obama, in April, said that the world would know if Iran cheated on the deal, and Wallace pointed out he said nothing about 24 days.
"Chris, don't play a game here," Kerry said. "The fact is in arms control, there is no country anywhere on this planet that has anywhere, anytime. There is no such standard within arms control inspections … We never, ever had a discussion about anywhere, anytime. It's called managed access. It's under the IAEA. Everybody understands that."
Kerry essentially admitted as the chief negotiator in talks with a rogue sponsor of terrorism that he never even sought an inspections regime that comprehensive.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said he was "very confident" that the 24-day period was sufficient to discover whether Iran was in fact cheating on the deal.
"What will happen is, if the process runs the full length of the 24 days, the [international nuclear] inspectors will take environmental samples … We feel very confident they would find the evidence of nuclear activity," Moniz said.
Iranian officials celebrated the nearing close of the negotiations last week, "all wearing large smiles," according to the Jerusalem Post.