November 12, 2013 | Quote
Administration Bashed Over Iran Deal
When France, Saudi Arabia, Democrats, Republicans and foreign policy gurus of all stripes express varying degrees of outrage over a U.S. president’s foreign policy, you know things have gone badly off track. In the case of the Iran negotiations, the United States, Israel and, really, the entire West escaped, for now, a disastrous misstep, thanks to French resistance. It was widely reported that the French put their foot down, unwilling, the foreign minister said, to be part of a “con job” that would have given Iran access to foreign reserves in exchange for a “freeze” of enrichment but with the Arak plutonium plant in operation.
The Post reports: “After a tumultuous day of bargaining, diplomats emerged after midnight to acknowledge they had fallen short of a deal that would have required Iran to suspend key parts of its nuclear program in exchange for modest relief on economic sanctions. The sides will try again Nov. 20.”
The plan would have undercut multiple United Nations resolutions and, according to the Israelis, representations made to them about the sort of deal in the works. (“The draft plan called for Iran to temporarily freeze key parts of its nuclear program that would enable it to quickly make nuclear weapons in the future if it chose to do so. But the plan reportedly did not require Iran to halt all uranium enrichment, though it did require a full dismantlement of a partially completed nuclear reactor that could, if finished, produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The temporary freeze was to be an interim step to halt Iran’s nuclear progress as a more comprehensive deal was being negotiated.”)
Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Right Turn, “France, which has a deep historical understanding of the dangers of appeasement, felt compelled to prevent a bad U.S.-brokered deal that would have left the door open for Iran to make an easy dash for the bomb. France was acting in the interest of international security, unlike Washington’s negotiators, who appeared interested in merely getting a deal done.” He warned, “This was a temporary reprieve and is in no way a guarantee that a bad deal doesn’t get signed in 10 days’ time.”