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Townhall
Obama Deal With
Iran in Trouble
Michael Barone
Apr 10, 2015
Is the tide turning against President Obama's purported nuclear weapons
deal with Iran? One sign that the answer is yes is the devastating
opinion article in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal by former
Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.
The architect of Richard Nixon's opening to China and the partner of
Ronald Reagan in his negotiations with the Soviet Union are diplomatic
in their criticisms. They pay passing tribute to their successor John
Kerry's "persistence, patience and ingenuity." But they have many
disturbing questions -- I count 16 question marks in the article --
about the deal.
Certainly it falls far short of what Obama himself cited as minimum
requirements as recently as December 2013. The Fordow underground
facility will not be eliminated; the heavy water Arak reactor won't be
closed down; and Iran will be allowed thousands of centrifuges
unnecessary for any peaceful nuclear power program.
American negotiators did obtain a few concessions. Enrichment will be
confined to one facility, and within certain limits, the enriched
stockpile will be reduced. But are even those parts of the deal
enforceable?
There also remain questions of just what was agreed on. The Obama
administration's "key parameters" statement says that Iran needs to
meet benchmarks before sanctions are lifted. The Iranians put out a
paper saying that sanctions will end immediately.
Obama took the rare step of summoning the usually sympathetic New York
Times columnist Thomas Friedman to a Saturday interview at the White
House. Obama admitted that "there are a lot of details to be worked
out, and you could see backtracking and slippage and real political
difficulties, both in Iran and obviously here in the United States
Congress."
Speaking more generally, he said, "If in fact we can resolve these
issues diplomatically, we are more likely to be safe, more likely to be
secure, in a better position to protect our allies, and who knows? Iran
may change." The nuclear negotiations, he said, are "this
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
That suggests that Obama believes no future president would approve
such a deal -- which is plausible, given the public's skepticism and
the doubts of experts that it can be effectively enforced against a
hostile regime with a record of cheating and concealment.
For the rest of this article and more, go to Townhall
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