(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position on sanctions against Iran is “mythology,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. “The whole mythology I’ve heard, from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to Republican members of the House and Senate – ‘Oh, just squeeze them to death, raise the sanctions’ – not gonna happen,” Kerry said in an interview with the Boston Globe published April 28.

The Obama administration has consistently opposed new Congressional sanctions against Iran over the course of the nuclear negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 nations, a group that includes the U.S. But Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have argued for keeping up economic pressure on Iran. “Look, if Russia, China, Germany, France, and Britain, all of whom have nuclear programs, sign off on this [nuclear agreement with Iran], and all their experts say it’s a good deal, and Congress for political reasons wants to go kill it, they’re walking away,” Kerry said.

In February, Foreign Policy magazine released a survey in which a group of 1,615 international relations scholars ranked Kerry as the least effective U.S. secretary of state among the 13 holders of that office over the last 50 years.