Obama delivers on a bold promise of change MICHAEL WILNER/J.Post/07/15/2015
VIENNA – Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008 on a promise of change, and he has now delivered, forging a historic international agreement in his image that fundamentally shifts the paradigm of power in the Middle East. The deal sealed on Tuesday between six world powers and Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, will forever define Obama’s legacy as commander-in-chief. It is the most significant arms control agreement adopted since the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed between the US and the Soviet Union in 1991; the most consequential single policy action in the Middle East since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003; and the most dramatic reversal of US relations with a foreign nation since Richard Nixon visited China in 1972. And like all major policy shifts, the JCPOA carries tremendous risk for the president and for his country. Obama is investing in the future of a government that has, over its 36 years in existence, defined itself in opposition to much of what America stands for.
That is what Obama’s administration reflects on when it discusses the entity that Iran has become. It is with an educated knowledge of history that Obama strode down the State Floor of the White House on Tuesday morning and announced a sweeping deal with an Islamic state. Five consecutive US presidents have approached the Islamic Republic with a policy of containment and distrust. But Tehran says this policy reinforces its founding purpose: To resist an “arrogant” West, and particularly the United States.
And that is precisely why Obama thinks this deal, the JCPOA, is the only reasonable alternative. He talks of the human waves of Iranians thrown at Saddam Hussein’s forces during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, of Iran’s “resistance economy” model, and of its defiance of international sanctions on its nuclear program as proof that Tehran, in the end, cannot be tamed by conventional means.
So he’ll try cooperation, instead.
“Sanctioning Iran until it capitulates makes for a powerful talking point and a pretty good political speech, but it’s not achievable outside a world of fantasy,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday at the announcement ceremony for the deal. “The fact is the international community tried that approach.”Obama made a similar argument in his own address. “That was the policy of the United States and others during the years 2000 and before,” Kerry continued. “And in the meantime, guess what happened? The Iranian program went from 164 centrifuges to thousands. The Iranian program grew despite the fact that the international community said, ‘No enrichment at all, none.’”
The White House says the deal is based on verification and Iranian compliance. But while technical deals are based on verifiable facts, political agreements are based on trust. And indeed, both Kerry and Obama acknowledge that “confidence building” will be an important part of the life of this deal going forward. “It is possible to change,” Obama said. “A different path, one of tolerance and peaceful resolution of conflict, leads to more integration into the global economy, more engagement with the international community, and the ability of the Iranian people to prosper and thrive.” Around the Palais Coburg in Vienna, where the agreement was reached, Iran’s press corps celebrated the news with an extraordinary sense of national pride. To them, a policy of painful resistance had finally been vindicated – even rewarded. But they also took pride in something entirely new: The belief they were being treated by Western governments with a genuine sense of respect. That may be Obama’s ultimate strategy, entirely separate from the nuclear file.
Zarif scoffs at ‘Netanyahu’s uproar’ over Iran nuclear deal
JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS/07/15/2015
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived back in Tehran on Wednesday a day after reaching a nuclear deal with six world powers in Vienna.”Today the negotiations have ended with the Security Council approving a resolution that for the first time in its history will officially recognize the nuclear power of a developing country. And this is a complete U-turn,” Zarif said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been vocal in his opposition to the deal, a fact that was not lost on Zarif. “Today we are witnessing Netanyahu’s uproar on all television channels and in newspapers, and we have heard that the fact that the nation of Iran have made their rights official with perseverance, removed the sanctions upon them and also prevented a false crises, has made him very uneasy.” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting broadcast on state television Wednesday that the nuclear deal is a political victory, adding that the agreement meant Tehran would no longer be regarded as an international threat.
“No one can say Iran surrendered,” Rouhani said. “The deal is a legal, technical and political victory for Iran. It’s an achievement that Iran won’t be called a world threat any more.” Iran and six world powers reached a deal on Tuesday, capping more than a decade of negotiations with an agreement that could transform the Middle East. Under the deal, sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations will be lifted in return for Iran agreeing to long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb. “No deal is perfect. There should be always compromise,” Rouhani said in his remarks to cabinet ministers. “It was really difficult to preserve some of our red lines. There was a time we doubted there could be a deal. It’s a historic deal and Iranians will be proud of it for generations to come.”
Among Iran’s main conditions, or “red lines,” at the talks were a refusal to accept a long freeze on nuclear research and development and a demand for a rapid lifting of sanctions. The United Nations Security Council is likely to vote next week on a resolution to endorse the Iran nuclear deal and terminate targeted sanctions, but retain an arms embargo and ballistic missile technology ban, diplomats said. The United States will circulate the draft resolution to the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday, UN diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Under the agreement, any United Nations sanctions relief would be simultaneous with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verifying “implementation of agreed nuclear-related measures by Iran.” “Next week the UNSC will recognize the enrichment program of a developing country,” Zarif said. “Our measures will start when all sanctions are lifted. We hope that more or less within four months measures taken by both sides show results and implementation of the deal begins.” The UN Security Council resolution would terminate its seven previous resolutions on Iran, but under the Vienna deal it would leave a UN weapons embargo in place for five years and a ban on buying missile technology for eight years.
