An nuclear deal has been reached by the US and Iran.
Here's what President Obama had to say about the deal: "Today after two years of negotiation the United States together with the international community has achieved something that decades of animosity has not: a comprehensive long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon," Obama said from the White House, with Vice President Joe Biden at his side.
John Kerry's, (Secretary of State) spin on the deal says " Iran's nuclear facility would be turned into a research center that will have daily inspections and include scientists from other countries."
CNN says the following "The essential idea behind the deal is that in exchange for limits on its nuclear activities, Iran would get relief from sanctions while being allowed to continue its atomic program for peaceful purposes."
The above all sounds wonderful on the surface. But let's get to the details of the deal.
The New York Times noted that "an arms embargo would remain for 8 years and a similar ban on the purchase and sale of missiles would be removed in 5 years."
They also state and I'm paraphrasing, that bans could be removed even sooner if the International Atomic Energy Agency decides Iran is not a threat.
Okay. Who is a part of the IAEA? Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, U.S., European Union itself and, you guessed it Iran. Read further...
How would this process work?
According to Fox News "The agreement requires international inspectors to ask Iran's permission first, after which Iran has 14 days to decide whether to grant it. If not, the same group of nations that struck the deal, IAEA would have another 10 days to make the decision. Basically giving IRAN 24 days to drag out the process."
Please note that none of the officials, nor the NYT, FoxNews or CNN stated that Israel, Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries were not part IAEA or the negotiation process. Odd. Especially since Israel is a major ally of ours, so I researched their thoughts on the deal.
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the historic nuclear agreement reached between Iran, the U.S., and five other world powers on Tuesday "to be a catastrophe". This quote was taken from the Huffington Post.
In contrast, The Times of Israel interviewed top U.S. aid, Ben Rhodes, US Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and he dismissed the notion by Netanyahu that "a better deal is obtainable". Rhodes assured "we will have anytime, anywhere access to the nuclear facilities".
What Rhodes left out was that the process of inspecting Iran's facilities would have to go through the International Atomic Energy Agency first, of which Iran is a part of and would give them up to 24 days notice!
Fast forward to the U.S. Congress having to approve the deal.
As further noted by Fox News, congress will have 60 days to review and vote on the agreement. The Iran deal is labeled an 'Executive Agreement' meaning that President Obama could easily veto any opposing vote and that could be the end of the story.
Mr. Obama sure loves his 'executive powers'. Think back to many other actions taken by him where he bypassed congressional approval. But that's a topic for another day...
Bottom line is that Obama has made his deal, will veto any vote that tries to quash it and at the end of the day, he will get his way most likely.
My guess, as a lay person/blogger trying to make sense of what goes on politically and cares about our country - is that this really isn't a deal. It's a concession to Iran, made to LOOK like a deal that will result in peace with this country and within the Middle East.
However, with Iran being on the IAEA, which has been billed as its watch dog, it will actually make it easier for this country to carry on with its nuclear plans.
How?
They'll now have the inside scoop on everything going on within the agency since they'll be a part of it. Thus they'll know exactly 'what the enemy' is up to and consequently figure out how to carry on and covertly mask their nuclear propagation. The adage 'keep my friends close and my enemies closer' seems to be a perfect fit for Iran...but maybe for us too. At least I hope so. Somehow I think Iran definitely got the better end of the stick. Only time will tell.
