(Mosaic) Michael Doran - It is clear to sober observers on all sides that the agreement with Tehran will fail to establish the elementary conditions for preventing the regime's development of a nuclear bomb. The emerging deal with Iran has three obvious defects that will be impossible to solve in the final round of negotiations. ◦First, the deal, practically speaking, will lift the sanctions immediately. Second, the assurance that sanctions will "snap back" in the event of Iranian misbehavior is absurd. Re-imposition of sanctions will require concerted action by the UN Security Council, a body that no one has ever accused of being either speedy or efficient. Finally, Iranian leaders have asserted, repeatedly and explicitly, that they will never allow the U.S. and its partners to conduct the kind of "anywhere, anytime" inspections that the Obama administration has claimed are part of the deal; without such a guarantee, international inspectors will be incapable of verifying Iranian compliance. Thanks to these core deficiencies, the deal will enable the Iranians to pocket enormous benefits - diplomatic, economic, and military - up front. And once they have enriched themselves by playing nice, there will be nothing to prevent them from beginning to cheat again. The writer is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and a former senior director of the National Security Council.
2015-05-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive