More Nuclear Time in Tehran- Iran Gets Seven More Months to Build a Bomb and Erode Sanctions.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/more-nuclear-time-in-tehran-1416874450
About the best that can be said about Monday’s agreement to extend the Iran nuclear negotiations for another seven months is that it’s better than the bad deal that so many in the West seem eager to embrace. Meanwhile, the U.S. and its European partners are giving Tehran more time and money to get closer to the nuclear threshold.
The talks have already been going for nearly a year and were formally extended once in July. Speaking in Vienna on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry said “new ideas surfaced” in recent days to justify the extension. If a breakthrough is so close, then why seven more months?
The answer is that the mullahs still aren’t budging on the decisive questions, but the Administration can’t bring itself to admit failure and face up to the consequences of having to impose tighter sanctions or perhaps take military action. President Obama and his advisers would rather give themselves another few months in hopes they can come up with new concessions that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei might finally accept.
Mr. Obama told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that no one should worry in any case because the interim deal “has definitely stopped Iran’s nuclear program from advancing” during the negotiations. Mr. Kerry was even more emphatic, insisting that “the interim agreement wasn’t violated. Iran has held up its end of the bargain. And the sanctions regime has remained intact.”
We wonder what they think of that in Tehran. According to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) quarterly report, Iran hasn’t halted centrifuge work at the Natanz facility as promised and has worked to perfect more advanced IR-5 centrifuges to enrich uranium. Iran calls this permissible R&D. But the Iranians have also significantly expanded their stockpiles of low-enriched uranium in the past year, holding enough now for about four nuclear bombs.
The diplomatic breathing space has also let Iran revive its economy and chip away at sanctions. The Obama Administration says the eased sanctions in the interim agreement give Iran $700 million in additional oil revenue every month, but the U.S. is understating the financial relief. A study from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Roubini Global Economics says Iran has received some $22 billion directly in the past year. Iran is also evading the oil export restrictions.
Iranian consumers feel more confident and foreign investors are lining up to do business with Tehran in anticipation of further sanctions relief. The currency has stabilized and a mild recovery has begun after two years of recession, even as oil prices are falling. The longer the interim deal continues, the more confident Tehran will become that the sanctions can never be reimposed.
The underlying reality hasn’t changed in a year. If Iran is sincere in wanting to remain a non-nuclear power it could open all its facilities to immediate and snap inspections and turn over all of its nuclear technology. That it won’t do so suggests it has every intention of playing along with the West until it can become a threshold nuclear power, even if it doesn’t have to test a weapon. Meanwhile, the Administration refuses to take no for an answer.
Which means it’s time for Congress to assert itself after a year of forbearance. A bipartisan bill to toughen sanctions is ready to roll to the Senate floor, and a vote might be the only way to make Mr. Obama face reality.
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