Overlooked Realities Of Trump’s Iran Decision

As exemplified by The Mercury‘s editorial of May 11, much of the outcry against President Trump’s decertification of the Iran nuclear deal is based on false premises.

• First, The Mercury‘s claim that the deal was “a treaty” is incorrect. What Obama and Kerry produced was no more than an understanding with the rogue Iranian regime. It was not a treaty as it was never submitted to or approved by the US Senate as the US constitution requires of treaties.

As such, Obama and Kerry tried to make US foreign policy by arrogant contempt for the constitutional separation of powers process. As such, Obama’s Iran deal had neither legitimacy nor the force of law. In bypassing the constitution’s treaty-making process, Obama gave his successor every right to discard the deal. Thus, by calling Trump’s action “childish,” The Mercury displays ignorance and spite.

• Second, it follows, then, that the claim that the deal was “not in the hands of a single country to terminate unilaterally,” is unfounded. Officially, the US never approved the agreement. Thus, the claim that America’s word is worthless, lacks credibility.
• Third, the rogue Iran regime never actually signed the deal, rendering all the anguish about Trump’s decision even more bizarre.
• Fourth, the claim that Iran agreed to cut its enriched uranium stockpiles and that the UN Atomic Agency had full access to monitor Iran’s nuclear programme, does not square with the facts. From the outset, limits were placed on the monitoring process while weapons such as ICBMs were not included in the Obama 2015 deal. As result, Iran has continued to develop its nuclear programme.
• Fifth, the only part of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was comprehensive was Obama’s donation of $100 billion to the Iran regime and the lifting of sanctions. But instead of using that money to uplift Iran’s shattered economy, it was used to sponsor terrorism and to prop up the Bashir-al-Assad regime in Syria.
• Sixth, what is completely overlooked by those lamenting Trump’s decision is Iran’s history of contempt for sanctions and UN resolutions. In 2014 Iran’s Foreign minister, Javad Zarif, boasted that between 2005 and 2013, despite sanctions, Iran had continued to expand the number of its centrifuges which reached20,000  by 2015. Yet despite that history of contempt, Obama and Kerry gave approval to Iran’s nuclear programme that was previously considered illegal, a deal which Obama described as his “major accomplishment.”

Although the Middle East is a volatile political cauldron, Trump’s decision has been welcomed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain which fear the Iran regime. The squeeze of economic sanctions on Iran may facilitate regime change given the growing groundswell of popular opposition.

Despite the howls of dismay that Trump was going to cause a nuclear war with North Korea, we now see North Korea talking about de-nuclearisation and even suggestions by Trump’s critics that his handling of the issue puts him in line for the Nobel Peace Prize. Thus, Trump’s decertification of Obama’s Iran deal may yet have a virtuous outcome.

Sent into The Mercury and published, 12 May 2018