It would be hard to find anyone, outside of the Obama administration and the Iranian regime, who thinks the framework deal on Iran’s nuclear program that emerged last week is a good deal. American lawmakers don’t trust it. Israeli officials despise it. And other Middle East countries, namely Egypt and Saudi Arabia, fear it. Here’s why.
A final deal won’t be negotiated until June, but the framework agreement described by the Obama administration raises several concerns. First, the deal is only designed to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons research and development for ten years. In a decade, the issue resurfaces and Iran will be in a better position to ignore the world’s pleas for peace. This limited timeframe only serves to kick the can down the road.
Second, the deal being discussed at present does not require the Iranians to cease uranium enrichment or close a single nuclear facility. Essentially, the Iranians are saying, “We promise not to put together our bomb for ten years, but in the meantime we’re going to keep building and stockpiling the parts.” This does not make the world in any way safer, and in a decade Iran will be able to quickly assemble a nuclear weapon without fear of repercussions of any kind. The breakout time for a nuclear weapon will be less than a year. In fact, many experts believe it could take less than two months for Iran to possess a nuclear bomb once this agreement expires.
However, Iran still refuses to allow foreign inspectors to enter any of their nuclear development sites. Without inspectors, the world will only have the word of a known terrorist regime as proof that they haven’t violated their promise to stop building a bomb. No one, from Netanyahu to Congress to other Middle Eastern leaders, believes there is any reason to trust Iran’s promises.
As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out when he spoke to Congress last month, this deal does not even mention Iran’s ballistic missiles which will carry the nuclear warheads once they are complete. Iran has refused to discuss the issue, and the Obama administration has simply decided to ignore it.
Finally, in exchange for absolutely no guarantee or proof that Iran is complying with the limited demands of the agreement, the Obama administration is determined to fulfill Iran’s demand that all economic sanctions be lifted immediately once the deal is signed. It has taken decades of painstaking international cooperation to put in place the sanctions against Iran which have choked off its ability to build nuclear weapons. Yet, once they are lifted, these sanctions cannot be “snapped back” into place quickly or completely. Moreover, the massive influx of cash into Iran’s regime once the sanctions are lifted will most likely be used to fund dozens of terrorist groups across the globe. Israel is particularly concerned about the support Hamas and Hezbollah will receive from their Iranian benefactor.
Netanyahu continues to press the White House, through diplomatic channels and through public outreach to Americans, to reconsider this bad deal. In response to President Obama’s criticism that the only alternative to this deal is war, Netanyahu said, “The alternative is standing firm and increasing the pressure on Iran until a good deal is achieved.”
