By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D.
LA JOLLA, California — Much has been said and written, by both Democrats and Republicans, about President Obama’s disastrous “deal” with Iran that has been justly compared to “Munich” where, in 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain surrendered to Hitler’s demands and sacrificed Czechoslovakia. The Iranian mullahs were granted a “down payment” relief from the sanctions of about 7 to 9 billion dollars (some say 20 billion if we count the cheating, which is certain) without giving up anything of substance as their “down payment” toward the “dismantling of their military nuclear capabilities” which was the declared objective of the US president and the other participants.
All ingredients for the atomic bomb are still intact. The 19,000 centrifuges are still spinning,and the Arak plutonium center, with its heavy water reactor necessary only for the bomb, is still intact. Not to mention the clandestine facilities such as Parchin and other military bases denied access to the inspectors of the UN, the US and the EU, where the “work” continues, unimpeded, and at a greater speed. IAEA inspectors recently expressed great concern about these “secret localities producing dirty bombs in suitcases,” that would be given to Hizballah and other Iran-sponsored terrorists, and used not only against Israel and the Sunni Arab Middle-East countries but also against Europe, America and…Russia.
The mullahs have gained time to pursue their infernal course; the breaking up of the sanctions regime, which strengthens their dictatorial authority; legitimacy as an equal interlocutor “with mutual respect;” and money to improve their economy and finance the anti-Israel and anti-US terror. No wonder the crowds are jubilant in Tehran while the US allies, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Sunnis, feel despondent,abandoned, apprehensive, and betrayed.
I summarized here the “objective” facts that make the agreement gravely flawed and up to no good. But there is a “subjective” subtext that make the “deal” a sham, a dangerous undertaking, because of the nature of the principal “dealers,” President Obama and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and their respective ideologies:
The Iranian revolution has produced a regime of extremist Shi’ite Islamist ideology, ruthless and intransigent in its dealing with its own people and with the Western world,and a sworn enemy to Israel and to the Sunni Arab Middle-East. They are animated by a messianic fervor that trumps any other consideration, material or otherwise; they can’t be bought, or even mellowed, by gifts or concessions.
They believe in the coming of the twelfth Imam who is now hidden and who will reign eternally, and they must hasten the event by their actions against the enemy however reprehensible they appear to others. Therefore:
.- For them, an agreement, deal, or treaty and their signature on it does not carry the same significance and obligations as is understood in Europe and America. It may be violated any time it serves their religious interests.
.- They also make good use of the religious concept of “Taqiya” which allows them to lie, or dissimulate, for the purpose of serving a higher Islamic interest. This is why they dis-interpret (not mis-interpret by mistake) the terms of the agreement, as their chief negotiator Javad Zarif said after signing: ” All nuclear sites will continue their normal activity, none will stop, no material will be shipped to another country, our right to enrichment has been recognized,” which was soon reaffirmed by the Supreme Leader who, after ritually menacing Israel as “a rabid dog…that should disappear,” proclaimed that ” [We] will not dismantle one centrifuge!” The next day Iran announced that they are building 16 more “plants” at the nuclear installations in Busher.
.- They tell their people that they have won the battle with the “Great Satan” and that the sanctions regime has been “broken.” Hence the jubilation at the celebrations on the streets with signs claiming the “Islamic NUCLEAR Republic of Iran,” which, in turn,enhances the prestige and authority of the mullahs and makes any future accommodation impossible.
No wonder that no American president in the last thirty-five years, whether Democrat or Republican, could “negotiate” with the Iranian regime, until Obama came trumpeting his own ideology, first enunciated in his Cairo speech in 2009 and, later, implemented with disastrous effects.
Its main tenets regarding foreign policy, as expressed by the president ,are: “America made great mistakes in the past in its dealing with foreign countries. I apologize for them and we need to make amends; Islam is not only respected, but glorified for its desire for peace and its contribution to the development of America; we should eliminate all nuclear weapons; any conflict can and must be resolved by diplomatic means, by talking to one another without resorting to the use of force etc.
This show of naivete didn’t go unnoticed by other potentates who exploited it to the hilt . Seeing Obama’s craving for a “deal at any cost,” they upped the antes, which led to Karzai’s humiliation of America, to Abbas’s rejection of Kerry’s peace proposals, and to China’s attempt at exclusive control of an area in the China Sea with two small islands claimed by Japan, all of these cases fraught with danger of conflagration.
The sad corollary is that America’s natural allies in the Middle-East and in Asia have lost their trust in the president and the dangerous foes have been empowered to increase their evil-doing.
It appears that both ideologies, Khamenei’s and Obama’s, rather than confronting each other, suited each other perfectly, hand-in-glove, one of them (Obama’s) putting itself voluntarily at the service of the other and enabling it to pursue, unimpeded, its infernal course toward the acquisition of the bomb.
In one fell swoop, and unilaterally, Obama has nullified six UN Security Council resolutions, approved even by Russia and China, against Iran enriching uranium, and any talk about “restoring the sanctions IF the Iranians will cheat…” is pure misleading spin, a fallacy, especially when the other signatories of the “deal,” certainly the Russians and Chinese, couldn’t wait to see the sanctions lifted and are now lining up to resume business with Iran.
As said above, the Sunni Arabs are furious: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and the Arab Emirates have declared their intention to acquire nuclear weapons , and Israel is paralyzed , boxed in, unable for obvious reasons to take on the Obama administration until the weaponization of nuclear Iran becomes really imminent, and then, all bets are off.
President Obama has not yet internalized the gravity of the situation. In another example of his “cool” amateurism, both in foreign and domestic policy, it was recently reported that he believed the interim accord with Iran had a 50-50 chance to succeed, as if he were talking about the chance of rain falling or of winning a lottery, not of a nuclear holocaust. And , pouring salt on Israel’s wound, his Secretary of State is pushing for more concessions from Israel to the Palestinians that will gravely endanger its security. Thank God and Abbas for rejecting all the goodies as Arafat did twenty years ago.
As things stand now, if nothing is done to reverse the situation, the “interim deal” with Iran will become “permanent” and it is tantamount to an admission of the possibility of a militarized nuclear Iran, which means a change from the declared Obama policy of “not allowing Iran to produce the bomb” to an undeclared policy of “containment” which was repeatedly denounced before. But it won’t be the first time we witness such a “transformation.” (Remember “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it. PERIOD.”)
The U.S. Congress has its work cut out for it.
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Isaac Yetiv is a freelance writer and lecturer based in La Jolla, California. He may be contacted via issac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com