Iran Deal Hits a Milestone as Challenges Mount

Iran has shipped more than 25,000 pounds of nuclear material to Russia, a major milestone that leaves the Islamic Republic without enough low-enriched uranium to manufacture a nuclear weapon. 

But the development comes as tensions over the Obama administration’s landmark nuclear deal with Tehran emerge from a variety of quarters in the United States and Iran, raising concerns about the deal’s long-term viability.

In Congress, Republicans and some Democrats are hammering the Obama administration for not responding more aggressively after a United Nations panel said earlier this month that Iran had violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by testing a ballistic missile in October.

After the U.N. panel’s findings, Senate Republicans introduced legislation to bar the Obama administration from lifting sanctions on Iran, as agreed to in the nuclear deal, until it certifies that Iran has ended any military-related activity in connection to its nuclear program, among other things. The Obama administration opposes the legislation.

Still, critics charge that the administration’s lack of firm response to the Iranian ballistic missile tests give Tehran a green light to develop its missile program while staying in compliance with its nuclear-related commitments.

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“Iran simply has to follow the deal to emerge in 10 to 15 years as a much more dangerous adversary with a massive nuclear program, a short path to a bomb, [and] intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told FP. Dubowitz has long been one of the deal’s most prominent critics.

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