public was demanding for us to do. we don t want to go it alone in the world any more. what s the alternative, more tough talk, is that it? all the policies on the table are exactly what republicans are asking for. you have john boehner out there calling him a thug. you want more of that? is that helpful? again, i think i try to make clear right at the outset that i think that sort of petty name calling is foolish. i think it s foolish whether it comes from republicans or democrats. what i mean by leadership and i m sorry that leadership is such a mystery to you that it needs to be defined but what i mean by leadership is really pulling forward and showing the resolve that this will not be tolerated by the united states. are you saying is threaten military action? no, absolutely not. i think that s the kind of straw man that people keep building up. tell us. like saying boots on the ground. we can start selling gas to the european union. we can start targeting ukraine off
the other important banking sanctions, but if you re unfreezing up to $7 billion in a combination of things, their assets, they still have the oil in the ground. they eventually will be able to produce it when sanctions at some point are lifted, presumably if this goes well, and you re giving them access to money. you re propping up their economy at a time when they were basically, you know, down on the mat. well, the relief package includes about $4 billion in allowing the iranians access to their own money. about $4 billion. then some other commercial trade that is worth about $2 billion. that is economically insignificant to iran. if you look at what they have been deprived of in terms of their oil revenue over the last two years, it s more than $100 billion. if you look at their foreign reserves that they don t have access to, it s about $100 billion. if you look at their budget deficit, it s north of $35 billion. so this very modest sanctions
they still have the banking they re blocked from international banking. they re blocked from oil exports. but the real impact on their economy and on the struggle of the iranian people, which was pressuring the regime, putting them on the mat, if you will, was not only those banking sanctions. but the fact that their currency was in collapse. and that their money had no value. immediately, it began to regain value. i think that this is going to be good for iran and the question is whether iran is going to live up to its agreement. we ll know pretty quickly, i think, whether the u.n. inspectors have real access. but critics, and they include as you say not justice real, but saudi arabia, principally. the emiratis are saying look at how they hid the reactor in the mountain. they didn t declare it until we found out about it. so there are a lot of serious problems in this. it s better than a alternative. willie, i was talking this weekend.
officials counter there is unprecedented verification in the deal that would uncover any cheating immediately. the administration will launch an aggressive outreach campaign on the hill. secretary of state john kerry will be on the phone with members of congress this week, even during the thanksgiving break, and in person right after the thanksgiving break ends to build support, despite that stiff opposition. but still, it s going to be a tall order. certainly is. thanks very much, jim sciutto in geneva. let s bring in the president s deputy national security advisor joining us from the white house. tony, thanks very much for coming in. thanks for having me. now that the agreement was signed early sunday morning, geneva time, when will the sanctions actually start being lifted, those sanctions that are going to be lifted for the iranians? first of all, what s important to understand with regard to sanctions is throughout the six-month period, all of the core sanctions stay in p
two hours with top republicans and democrats from four key senate committees, considering tougher sanctions on iran. reports outside the u.s. have suggested washington was being too lenient over the iranians nuclear programs. moments ago, however, the president pushed back on those claims. part of the reason i have confidence that the sanctions don t fall apart is because the oil sanctions, banking sanctions, those are the ones that have really taken a big chunk out of the iranian economy. at issue is how much to offer iran in temporary sanction relief, and how much to expect in return, in terms of freezing its nuclear enrichment operations. the white house talks come the same day as two suicide bombers struck iran s embassy in lebanon, killing at least 23,