For starters, it wasn’t a treaty.
Like most of Barack Obama’s legacy, the Iran Deal was brittle and unsustainable because it was undertaken unilaterally. Even with the creation of a media echo chamber and the ugly, relentless attacks on critics, the former president was unable to pull together a consensus. The Obama administration circumvented that accountability. For that reason alone, it’s a good thing Trump nixed the deal.
Even as John Kerry was acquiescing to one Iranian demand after the next, a number of senators explained to the despots in Tehranthat such a deal could be easily scuttled. Nearly every Republican candidate running for the presidency in 2016 — not to mention nearly every GOP candidate running for the Senate — promised to withdraw from (or renegotiate) the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action if they won.
Obama likely didn’t believe the GOP would regain the presidency — and if it did, he probably couldn’t conceive of a situation where a president would dare back out of a non-proliferation agreement, however flawed. And, as many problems as I do have with Trump, I can’t imagine that any other Republican would have withstood the unrelenting political pressure that was likely exerted, not only from allies but also from business interests at home, either.
In the end, though, Trump walked away from a promise made by the Obama administration, not the American people. Despite what you may have read, the United States has not “violated” any international agreement. The president has the prerogative to withdraw the United States from the JCPOA, whether or not Teheran was found in violation by IAEA. Just ask Ben Rhodes.
Since the Iran Deal did absolutely nothing meaningful to safeguard against the production of nuclear weapons in the long run, it’s in the national interest of the United States to exit and seek a better deal. The Obama administration, which assented to every imaginable Iranian demand to preserve this agreement, allowed Teheran to dictate the terms of IAEA access, which included asking permission for inspections, the ability to deny access to military sites and the ability to take nearly a month’s time to clean up at sites.
So we don’t know if Iran is complying. What we do know is that the despite the Teheran agreeing not to “attempt to design, pursue, build or otherwise seek a nuclear weapon,” any of which “would be an explicit and detectable violation of the agreement,” Israel has uncovered documents that prove Iran was in possession of clandestine plans, despite years of denials, to develop five 10-kiloton nuclear warheads. We know that Iranians continue to develop a ballistic missile program to deliver those weapons — something the Obama administration caved on at the behest of Russians. We know that Iran refused to renegotiate the deal’s “sunset provisions” which provides a pathway to building nuclear weapons. Why, one wonders?
We also know that after Trump’s speech making the case for withdrawal, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani claimed that Iran would be “prepared for enrichment in the next weeks.” Which is a weird thing for a nation that has completely given up its desire to obtain nuclear weapons to say. Then again the idea that this agreement, as promised by so many in Obama administration, snuffed the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions was absurd all along.
The Iran Deal was just like the Paris Accord a bad deal to start with dumping it was smart thinking
This was not a US treaty, it was an Obama promise and we have seen the inherent value of an Obama promise.
The left never understands that middle east countries only understands strength. The Obama way of sending wimpy state department reps like John Kerry to prostate themselves on the sand is view as huge weakness. Drawing a line in the sand and failing to defend it is weakness. Most every thing Obama did in the middle east showed weakness. The government of Iran is precariously perched on the last high ground before they will be swept into the sea. Trump’s bold moves show strength and determination to prevent a nuclear Iran and peace in the middle east. The left are just whining because they never had the character to do what is right.
The parts that were public are ridiculous, imagine how insane the super secret side deals are.
@Randy: Could Kerry have sent a clearer message to radical Islamists than when deployed a folk singer to support France against terrorism?
@kitt: Funny that Schumer denounced the deal when Obama was President but now supports it when Trump withdraws from it.