But, as Moon of Alabama blog points out, the United Nations certification on Saturday means that Iran does not have nor will it pursue a nuclear weapon.
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The results of the deal speak for themselves.
Given these factors, how can the Obama administration claim Iran has complied with the nuclear agreement?
Indian firms have so far shied away from investing in Iran for the fear of being sanctioned by the USA and Europe.
And then there is the issue of the “swap” of five American hostages for seven Iranian criminals held in USA prisons and the removal of 14 other Iranian criminal and terrorists from the INTERPOL wanted list. It also detained and humiliated 10 U.S. Navy sailors last week.
Although nuclear deal has weak verification provisions, the Iranian parliament made them even weaker last October when it ratified an amended version of the deal containing new language on dismantling Israel’s nuclear weapons program, requiring that sanctions under the agreement be cancelled and not suspended, forbidding IAEA inspections of military installations, and barring IAEA interviews of Iranian military officers and scientists.
That the USA waited less than 24 hours after ending sanctions to impose new ones is a big boost to Iran’s ultraconservative factions ahead of next month’s elections, as they declared them vindication to their opposition to the nuclear deal on the grounds the United States couldn’t be trusted to keep up its end of the bargain. We believe the sanctions are illegal. To get us there, however, President Obama will need to test the hypothesis, as he has done with Cuba and Myanmar before, that the United States loses nothing through direct engagement with its adversaries. It is to tell Iran it has no right to develop any sort of military deterrent despite being ringed by adversarial countries many of which have threatened Iran with destruction. It should not be too hard also because Iran is Islamic-lite, unlike fundamentalist states (like many Arab monarchies). The nuclear deal is now an umbrella that protects Iran’s mischief in other areas.
“Deeply encoded in Obama’s software, the answer was Iran”, Joseph Bahout, a Middle East scholar at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace, told AFP. There is a reason Iran’s conduct has gotten worse: the rotten Iran deal. Perhaps Trump, Kasich and Clinton do not appreciate that “policing” the deal with a closed society led by a regime determined to cheat is an exercise in futility.
Trump has said it would be tough to rip up the agreement with Iran on its nuclear program but has vowed that if he were elected president he would “police that contract so tough they don’t have a chance”. There will be reviews and debate.
In addition, export from the European Union to Iran of equipment and technologies for the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, as well as investment in the Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, is permitted.
We want to hear from you.
One has to be committed to the deal for the sake of the deal and without regard to its ongoing consequences to disfavor pulling the plug.
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Critics of the move, which also applies to Iraq, Syria and Sudan, say it will discourage business travel to Iran and cause complications for dual nationals, who are likely to be among the first attracted to doing business in Iran.
