Deal Reached With Iran, Which Gets Almost Everything It Wants

14 Jul, 2015 by William Teach

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Leftist media outlet after leftist media outlet are trotting out the word “historic”. Chamberlain’s deal with Nazi Germany was historic, too. Is this deal as bad? Once the full details are exposed, we’ll know

(NY Times) Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States have agreed to a historic accord to significantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions against Iran, a senior Western diplomat involved in the negotiations said on Tuesday.

The agreement and its annexes run more than 80 pages, Iranian officials said, outlining in painstaking detail how much nuclear fuel Iran can keep in the country for the next 15 years; what kind of research and development it can perform on centrifuges and other nuclear equipment; and the redesign of both a nuclear reactor and a deep-underground enrichment site that Israeli and American officials feared could be invulnerable to bombing.

But to strike the deal, Mr. Kerry and the other negotiators had to accept an understanding that essentially left in place most of Iran’s infrastructure at the country’s main nuclear sites, though much of it would be disassembled and put in storage. Iran is likely to cite that fact as evidence that it never gave in to the West’s demands that it dismantle its critical facilities.

They are being allowed to keep over 6000 centrifuges in operation, meaning their nuclear weapon aspirations are just delayed. Provided they don’t cheat. And Iran would never cheat, right? The restrictions phase out after 10 years, and after 15 they are free to produce as much weapons grade material as the want! So, the deal has just kicked the can down the road.

(Politico) Obama main goal was to impose limits on Iran’s fast-advancing nuclear program to ensure that Tehran can’t acquire a nuclear bomb faster than the U.S. and its allies can act to stop it. The deal seeks to do that by reducing Iran’s capacity to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium, slowing its research and development into nuclear technology, and imposing inspections and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities to prevent cheating.

No, the idea was to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program, not slow it. So, in that regard, complete fail.

Inspections of the nuclear sites, especially the military ones, is obviously a big deal. What I’m seeing in the various articles is unclear, so, there’s little point in discussion till the details are released. One point most are reporting is that Iran will be given a heads up prior to any inspections.

As Iran takes steps to scale back its nuclear program, the U.S., U.N. and EU will gradually begin to lift sanctions on Iran’s economy. That reportedly includes the phase-out of a U.N. arms embargo that held up the talks in the final hours.

Some are reporting that Iran will be allowed to begin exporting massive amounts of oil. Again, details are slim. What we do know is that Iran will be flush with cash, which concerns many nations, since Iran is the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism. Removing the arms embargo? Iran has already broken it multiple times. Giving them the ability to export weapons to the terrorist organizations it supports is a really bad idea.

Anyhow, Obama is supposed to give a speech about this sometime this morning. Supposedly in a few minutes. Once the full deal is released, we’ll have a better idea as how bad this deal is. Unless you’re Iran. Then it’s really good, at least for the hard-liners.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.