The “Historic” Iran Nuclear Deal
In an almost ironic sense of fate, it seems that Obama lived up to his pledge that even a bad deal is better than no deal.
Well, we have a deal that was formally announced to the world yesterday. The uber-liberal website ThinkProgress shared this summary article of the deal with the following picture for its cover photo.
It seems the anti-American sentiment is running a little high over at ThinkProgress. They could have chosen any of a number of photos but went with the one leaving out U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Obama’s attempt to forge a historical legacy and they left him out. One has to wonder if this is an omen of what it is actually in the deal.
(For those who want to download the full text, Vox.com has made it available for download as a PDF.)
Key Provisions
The main issue critics have with this deal is whether or not Iran will have the capability to develop nuclear arms. This is the issue that has been debated the most during these overly protracted negotiations.
A “Key Provision” directly quoted from the ThinkProgress article —
In exchange, Iran has agreed to curb the amount of time they can produce a nuclear weapon from a few months to over ten years.
This is not political spin. I am quoting them word for word. By their own admission, this deal DOES NOT stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
That can’t be correct. There has to be a misprint or something, right?
From the full text of the deal as provided by Vox.com (another uber-liberal website) —
“Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop
or acquire any nuclear weapons.”
There are two mentions of “nuclear weapons” in the entire deal. Both are from this same statement that was made twice.
That is what Obama has so expertly negotiated and the concessions he has received from Iran. They have “promised” not to develop nuclear weapons.
Even if you want to give Obama the benefit of the doubt here, it seems this meme circulating on Facebook is true in every last detail of the situation concerning this deal.
Despite Obama’s news conferences to the contrary, the very language included in the deal (which Vox describes as quite readable for an international arms deal) states that Iran has to “reaffirm” that they have no intention of developing or acquiring nuclear weapons.
This is also the same country where the former leader — Ahmadinejad — described Obama as an “inexperienced amateur.”
What About Inspections?
According to ThinkProgress —
“UN inspectors can demand access to nuclear facilities on Iranian military sites…”
However, they are not quite forthcoming with all of the details when it comes to inspections. It seems that all they can do is demand. Iran has to approve the request for inspections FIRST.
In addition, justification for even requesting the access has to be provided to Iran in advance of actually being able to inspect the nuclear facilities. From the text of the deal —
The IAEA will provide Iran the reasons for access in writing and will make available relevant information.
This cannot be any worse. Actually, it can.
If Iran says no — or does not properly explain something away — the response is the for the participating powers to come to sort of consensus within 14 days of the original request of IAEA to implement the “necessary means.” Then there would be another 10 days for Iran to implement the “necessary means.”
The only problem is “necessary means” is not defined anywhere in the deal.
That is the deal that Obama is desperately trying to preserve. One that has no teeth and is as clear as Obamacare — pass it so you can find out what is in it.
What About The Other Key Provisions?
Are you sure you want to know about those?
Well, according to ThinkProgress, Iran will be able to freely rebuild their military with supplies from Russia (our #1 geopolitical foe in the region), China, North Korea, or whomever without any consequence. Those supplies would include conventional arms and ballistic missiles.
(I wonder if Obama consulted Israel on this one.)
In fact, the U.S. has agreed to basically pay for the deal by unfreezing all of their assets. Yes, this is what we are getting in this deal. Also, did I mention that Iran can still enrich uranium for “R&D purposes.” (Wink, wink.)
So what do we get with this deal? Let’s see — a destabilized Middle East, a stronger Iran, and Obama threatening Congress to approve the deal “or else.”
That sure sounds like a winner. (Note sarcasm.)
But read the text of the deal for yourself. If you think it is a good deal, I have some swamp land I would like to sell you too.
