Democrats, Republicans, Neutral Experts Reject Iran Sellout

Four new, deeply troubling reports suggest Congress, if it is serious about stopping Iran’s nuclear program, will have to reject the final deal P5+1 deal in the works.

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A third report co-authored by Mark Dubowitz and Annie Fixler makes two additional and critical points. First, “The emerging deal does not link the sunset of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities to a broader conclusion by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran is not engaged in any undeclared nuclear activities and its program is entirely peaceful in nature.” In other words, we give up leverage before we know if Iran has entirely given up its military program. And second, “snapback” sanctions are not an effective means of curtailing Iran’s military program once we have given up initial leverage. (“The international sanctions regime took decades to put in place and to have an impact on Iran’s economy and decision making. In the later years of the agreement, international companies may have invested tens of billions of dollars back into Iran and will likely be less willing to forgo their business interests because of Iranian nuclear violations. It is also at this point, particularly after year ten of the agreement when key constraints on Iran’s nuclear program disappear, that economic leverage will be needed most to deter Iranian violations and to prevent Tehran from using its expanding nuclear infrastructure to move to a nuclear weapon.”) As they point out, after 15 years, Iran will likely have an industrial-sized and widely dispersed nuclear program, with unlimited advanced centrifuge capacity, zero breakout, and multiple heavy-water reactors — all of which will be increasingly seen as legitimate by the international community. And that is if for the first time in history Iran does not cheat on an international agreement.

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Read the full article here.