THE NUCLEAR AGREEMENT WITH IRAN COULD GO BEYOND ITS PRIMARY FOCUS

…The Azadi Freedom Tower in Tehran

To bring 6 nations and Iran to the table, it could only occur through a single focus.

Since the announcement of the Nuclear Weapons Agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group, which includes the US, Great Britain, France, China, Russia plus Germany, it seems that many of those in Congress don’t seem to understand why the agreement did not include any issues other than Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program.

The negotiations had only one primary focus.  Nothing in the negotiations were about controlling Iran’s conventional arms trade, nothing about Iran’s ICBM missile program, nothing about including any of the 4 Westerners currently being held in Iranian prisons, or any issues about Iran’s efforts in supporting the terror regimes such as in Yemen or Lebanon, or of Iran’s support of Hamas or Hezbollah.  Even though the religious Muslim dictator and ayatollah that rules Iran has urged the Muslim world to unite and destroy the state of Israel, none of that was to be allowed to become part of the Iranian nuclear negotiations.

But some still feel that it was too much of a single focus to not include some or all of these other issues. 

But the major point was that if Iran were to get a nuclear weapon, all those other issues would be insignificant. 

This is especially true since the religious and political leaders of Iran have for years claimed that Iran’s #1 goal was to destroy Israel.  In addition, that the Jewish Holocaust in Europe was a hoax.  All Iran would need to do to achieve this #1 goal is have one large nuclear device, and with that, Israel could be destroyed.  Obviously, then there would be another major Middle East war that could last for decades.

The other issue around the Iranian nuclear program is, if it were allowed to continue, this would encourage other wealthy Muslim nations to also pursue their own nuclear programs for countering a nuclear armed neighbor like Iran. 

We must remember that these neighbors of Sunni and the Shia Muslims, they have been at war with each other since the 6^th Century.  Many of the devote individuals in both of these groups revere the idea of becoming a religious martyr.  So, armed with a nuclear device, it would only take one of those groups to perform another variation of a 9/11 nuclear attack against their sworn enemies, and that would occur regardless of whether the enemies were Muslims or the hated Christian infidels.

Yes, these groups may still eventually obtain their weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD’s), but the idea is that the longer that these dueling groups can be limited to conventional weapons, the better the chance is that they could have their limited war efforts diverted to more positive results.

Now, the political conservative opposition is claiming that Iran will immediately have piles of money as the sanctions will be lifted and they can continue to increase their support of the terrorist activities around the globe. 

But Iran has been continuing to support these terror groups, even under the current harsh P5+1 sanctions, so nothing is expected to substantially change in that issue.

The conservatives just don’t seem to want to understand that “restrictive sanction measures will remain frozen until all the issues for lifting the sanctions are agreed upon by all of the parties.”  A diplomatic source has stated that there was no mention of immediate sanctions relief in the final document. That move would only be possible after “issues of former military dimensions of the Iranian nuclear program” are resolved.

However, there have been some real concerns that other Iranian programs may need to be affected due to potential harm to many Western nations, including the United States.

As an example, just days before the deal was inked in Vienna, US Joint Chiefs Chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey told a Senate committee that, “We should under no circumstances relieve the current pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking.”

 

His boss, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, similarly told the Senate Armed Services Committee that, “We want them to continue to be isolated as a military and limited in terms of the kinds of equipment and material they are able to procure.” 

Referring to Iran’s efforts to build long-range missiles, Carter added: “The reason that we want to stop Iran from having an ICBM program is that the ‘I’ in ICBM stands for intercontinental, which means having the capability of flying a bomb from Iran to the United States.”

The Secretary of State, John Kerry, has also stated that it must be noted that the P5+1 agreement was accomplished through the work of the group through the United Nations.  There are already agreements through the UN that allow for the US and the UN to monitor and to keep some restrictions already in place for limiting shipments of arms to and from Iran, and to other nations in conflict.

So, it is important that it is understood that this is not a perfect agreement, but it is a possible good start.

The situation is that without this agreement, even one with a time limit, Iran could have had a substantial nuclear weapon in about one year, or perhaps even less.  Without the agreement, we would also have no way of knowing what Iran’s overall nuclear capabilities were going forward.  Now, with regular inspections, we will know where Iran’s nuclear capabilities are for the future.

It must be noted that for years, the US tried by itself to apply sanctions for getting Iran to the negotiating table.  But Iran just laughed at the US and kept their programs going.  It wasn’t until President Obama and Secretary Clinton were able to get the P5+1 group to apply international trade and financial sanctions that actually hurt Iran enough to convince them to come to the table.

Hopefully, enough of those in Congress will understand that ¾'s of a loaf is better than no-loaf.  That having Iran at the table and possibly starting a real working relationship, it could turn out better than what the Western countries and Iran have gone through over the last 50 years.

Hopefully, anything is possible for the future. 

Just as it’s looking better today between the relationship between the US and Cuba, maybe there can be a new start for the US, and the other Western nations with Iran.

Stranger things have happened.

Copyright G.Ater  2015