Iran has a deal

The negotiations were hardfought …

… and conclusive:

RELATED POSTS:

• “[The crisis] began in 2002, when at a public press conference in Washington DC, an Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MKO) exposed details of undeclared Iranian nuclear activities, which had progressed much further than anyone had suspected. At least, almost anyone. While it was the MKO that revealed Iran’s nuclear secrets to the world, diplomats in the know told me the information had come from Israeli intelligence.
      “It was perhaps a fitting start to a crisis that has lasted almost exactly 13 years. From the beginning it is Israel that has – not unreasonably – driven international suspicion over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and it is Israel that today, along with Saudi Arabia, is smarting the most at the deal that has just been made between Iran and the P5+1 (the five Security Council powers and Germany).”
  An historic day for Iran and a horrifying one for Israel – David Patrikarakos, SPECTATOR
• “The optimistic Iranian view is grounded in the expectation that the deal will usher in a normalization of relations between Iran and the West, lifting both the sanctions regime and the threat of war. …
      “… the mood in Tehran is, in general, ‘very happy.’ Ordinary Iranians ‘obviously like what has happened’ primarily because ‘they expect money to arrive, which will help the economy and create jobs.’
      “But he noted several critical caveats. To begin with, expectations among ordinary Iranians are very high: they expect substantial economic improvement, and if that fails to materialise, [there is] a likelihood of serious political instability, which “could go in a terrible direction for Iran.’
      “For many years, the Iranian government has, with some good reason, blamed the U.S., Europe and their sanctions regime for the economic suffering of Iranians. ‘They no longer have that pretext, which means they have to deliver,’ he said.”
  Iranians' View of the Nuclear Deal: Optimistic, with Significant Caveats – Glenn Greenwald & Murtaza Hussain, THE INTERCEPT
• “Since 1979, when the revolutionary Islamists took power in Iran, the regime has hoped to be treated as a normal power even while behaving as a rogue, terrorist state. For years it has sought to super-charge its regional and international standing by acquiring nuclear weapons technology – a stated ambition which has repeatedly been proven by the regime’s game of cat-and-mouse with the international inspectorate of the IAEA. For years Iran has repeatedly been caught lying and cheating, with undeclared facilities and secret facilities built to enrich uranium not to the levels needed for civilian use (in a country flowing with natural energy resources) but to weapons-grade level.
      “Thanks to the Vienna deal the Obama administration claims that it has managed to bring Iran’s nuclear project under a more rigorous international watch and so to have avoided military conflict with the country. In reality America and her partners (including Britain) have been out-negotiated from the start.”
  The Iranian regime is anti-Western and anti-Semitic. Can we really trust its nuclear deal? – Douglas Murray, THE SPECTATOR
• “It is worth noting what the Iranians say the deal entails. This is from FARS, Iran’s news agency:
          Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said his country has achieved all its four goals in the
      agreement that his foreign minister Zarif signed with the six world powers in Vienna on Tuesday.
          President Rouhani said his nation started talks with the world powers in a bid to remove all
      sanctions while maintaining its nuclear program and nuclear progress as two main goals…
          None of the Iranian nuclear facilities will be dismantled or decommissioned.
          Furthermore, nuclear research and development activities on all types of centrifuges, including  
      advanced IR-6 and IR-8 machines, will continue. …
  How Iran Describes the Nuclear Deal – POWERLINE
• “Barack Obama has repeatedly signalled during the past six and a half years that that his No. 1 priority in foreign affairs is not China, not Russia, not Mexico, but Iran. He wants to bring Iran in from the cold, to transform the Islamic Republic into just another normal member of the so-called international community, thereby ending decades of its aggression and hostility. In itself, this is a worthy goal; it’s always good policy to reduce the number of enemies. (It brings to mind Nixon going to China.) The problem lies, of course, in the execution.
  Could the Iran Deal Be the Worst International Accord of All Time? – Daniel Pipes, NRO
  
• “It seems to me inevitable that, given the obvious flaws in the Obama administration’s nuclear deal, Iran will obtain nuclear weapons (barring outside military intervention) at roughly the time of its choosing with or without the deal. It also seems clear that, with or without this deal, the international sanctions regime will largely collapse, thanks to President Obama’s decisions first to negotiate with Iran and second to loosen sanctions before a real agreement was reached….
      “There is …no likely upside to Obama’s deal.”
  The Iran Deal - What Difference, at this Point, Does it Make? – Paul Mirengoff, POWERLINE
• “In defending the nuclear deal reached with Iran in Vienna today, President Barack Obama said that the agreement cut off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon. In fact, it does the opposite. The deal makes it far easier for Iran to develop nuclear weapons for four basic reasons.
      “First, it allows Iran to continue hiding much of its nuclear research. Second, its main restrictions last for only eight years. Third, it lets Iran continue developing ballistic missiles. And fourth, it provides billions of dollars in sanctions relief that Iran will use to further its nuclear aims.”
  Fact Check: Deal Makes it Easier for Iran to Develop Nukes – Joel Pollak, BREITBART
  Here’s the Truth About 6 of Obama’s Iran Deal Claims – Michaela Dodge, THE DAILY SIGNAL
• “The agreement legitimises Iran’s nuclear program, allows it to retain core nuclear facilities, permits it to continue research in areas that will dramatically speed its breakout to the bomb should it choose to flout the deal, but also enables it to wait out those restrictions and proceed to become a nuclear threshold state with full international legitimacy. Here’s how….”
  16 ways of looking at a catastrophe – David Horowitz, TIMES OF ISRAEL
• And finally, remember this?
  

[Cartoons by Michael Ramirez, Investor’s Business Daily. Hat tips Zero Hedge, Powerline, Small Dead Animals]