Israel’s prime minister would be threatening to attack Iran-and seeking to push the USA into taking the lead.
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But the nuts and bolts of the Iran deal speak for themselves. Iran is also an attractive investment destination for India.
“The way is now clear for the Agency to begin verifying and monitoring Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, as requested by the Security Council and authorized by the Board”, said Mr Amano.
Last weekend, however, we welcomed even more encouraging developments.
Iran is permitted under the deal to continue building nuclear reactors despite concerns from some experts that the technology could be used “to clandestinely continue weapons research”.
Regional states are already in a frenzy to acquire new conventional weapons and nuclear energy programs that can provide an option to enrich uranium and separate plutonium for nuclear weapons. All of this was completed a lot more quickly than most of us had expected, too.
“True, we should have made the prisoner release a precondition for negotiations”, Krauthammer conceded. “It’s something we’ve all known from the beginning”. That’s just another way of saying we have the rule of law, they don’t. There is little reason to expect further loosening of USA sanctions in the near future. In the event of a sanctions snapback, the US government will work to minimize the impact of sanctions on the legitimate activities of the contracting parties.
The lawmakers did not spell out the punitive measures they had in mind, but voiced blistering criticism of the Obama administration’s engagement with Iran. Yet, notwithstanding the news stories describing the lifting of sanctions, very little has changed for most US businesses. This exchange is sensible and pragmatic. And judging by how little it has benefited the region and Western ability to pursue its interests wherever they clash with Iran, it is hard to praise diplomacy for the little it has accomplished. The relief will only be maintained if Iran continues to hold up its end of the bargain.
Other Icelandic sanctions against Iran, involving for instance human-rights issues, Iran’s support for terrorist activity, and other non-nuclear issues, remain in force. Others say it will turn Iran into a powerhouse that rivals Saudi Arabia.
So instead of the world we have today, where Iran has taken major steps toward dismantling its nuclear program, Iran could be even closer to the bomb and we could be on the brink of yet another disastrous war in the Middle East.
MEMRI reported that since Obama’s Iran deal was announced last July, there have been many articles in the Saudi Arabian press calling on the government to develop its own military nuclear program. Lawyers say this stems in part from a discrepancy in the way the lifting of sanctions has been implemented. The United States removed in excess of 400 individuals and entities from the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), including the Central Bank of Iran. We should make that an easy choice for them. “If anything, such a move would show the world that the United States is once more a rogue actor on the global stage, just as it was during the Bush administration”. Iran is a relatively young country of 78 million people today. They are well educated. This new generation of Iranians seems ready and willing to usher in a new era of better relations between their country, the United States and other nations of the world.
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In an unstable Middle East neighborhood, most people hope for the best and plan for the worst. And this is when, as Cullis put it, the US would be on its “lonely island of self-exile”.
