France threatened Israel with recognizing the Palestinian Authority as a nation-state only a day after Iranian business agreements were made with French companies – a deal worth several billion euros. Coincidence? As the saying goes, money talks.
During Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s recent diplomatic tour of Europe, meetings took place with the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Pope Francis, over twenty French business leaders, and French President Francois Holland. The business deals arranged included over 118 Airbus commercial planes and renovations for Iran’s Peugeot car plant, amongst others agreements.
After the dangerous JPOA nuclear deal, Iran has emerged from its isolation in the international community because of its nuclear program. Although Iran appears to some observers as having compromised in the deal, the facts remain that Iran is set back only a small amount of time.
Because of the JPOA nuclear deal, Iran was able to legitimize its illegal nuclear program, allowed to keep its nuclear facilities (guaranteeing a bomb in the coming years), and continue researching and designing better centrifuges to enrich uranium quicker.
The current US administration has put so much political capital into the agreement that the President hesitates to slap greater sanctions on the Islamic Republic when it continues to support terrorism or dares nations to react to its illegal ballistic missiles tests.
President Obama’s decision to drop most of the heavy sanctions has allowed Iran to conduct business with some of America’s most critical international partners. The sanctions relief has given Iran the ability to access $100 billion dollars in previously frozen assets.
While some individuals, companies and organizations in Iran are still sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, countries in Europe and elsewhere are seeking to line their pockets with profits and resources from the world’s number one state-sponsor of terrorism. And while Europe stands to profit, Iran has the chance to grow economically and use strong-arm tactics in the Middle East, including its daily threats of destruction towards the US and the State of Israel.
