April 26, 2018 | The Hill

How Trump and Merkel can fix the Iranian nuclear deal

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with President Trump at the White House tomorrow, the looming deadline to waive sanctions against Iran will likely top the agenda. With the May 12 deadline fast approaching, Merkel will likely seek to convince Trump to not “nix” the Iran deal, but rather continue waiving sanctions. In their latest op-ed for The Hill, FDD Senior Vice President Toby Dershowitz and Research Fellow Benjamin Weinthal expose the fatal weaknesses in Germany’s policy toward Iran and the deal.

An excerpt from the op-ed in The Hill follows:

“The Merkel administration has shown no meaningful movement in remedying Trump’s major concerns about the Iran agreement in its current, dangerous form. The deal allows the sun to set on the agreement in less than ten years, at which time Iran will, unlike before the agreement was reached in 2015, be able to legally enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, without limit. The lack of unfettered surprise inspections of all of Iran’s military sites where the IAEA thinks that there is nuclear weapons-related work taking place is another significant deficiency of the deal. Lastly, Iran’s missiles can reach Europe, and there are no restrictions in the JCPOA on its rocket program.”

“While Germany and the EU have banned Hezbollah’s so-called “military wing” from operation in their jurisdictions, they refuse to proscribe Hezbollah’s entire organization as a terrorist entity. Hezbollah’s 950 members in Germany are allowed to fundraise and recruit operatives in the Federal Republic. And they are a potential source of support for Hezbollah’s European criminal enterprise. While designation of Hezbollah is not required by the JCPOA, Germany could signal to the United States that it is willing to address Iranian-backed terrorism, a move that may help persuade Trump it is a serious partner in addressing Iran’s malign activities and which may help persuade Trump to fix, not nix the nuclear deal.”

Read the full piece in The Hill here.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal.

Toby Dershowitz is senior vice president for government relations and strategy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follower her on Twitter @TobyDersh.

Follow the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Twitter @FDD. FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Issues:

Hezbollah Iran Iran Sanctions