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Major Problems with the Iran Deal
(Washington Post) Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer - The deal with Iran is breathtaking in its concessions to a regime that is the foremost sponsor of terror in the world, is on a march of conquest in the Middle East, is responsible for the murder and maiming of thousands of U.S. soldiers, and vows and works to annihilate the one and only Jewish state. The deal leaves Iran's nuclear capabilities essentially intact and allows Iran to improve those capabilities by conducting research and development on advanced centrifuges and building intercontinental ballistic missiles, whose sole purpose is to carry nuclear warheads. To keep Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions in check over the next decade, the P5+1 countries are relying on intelligence and inspectors. But it was years before either the U.S. or Israel knew that Iran had secret facilities at Natanz and Fordow. As for inspections, Iran has been deceiving the International Atomic Energy Agency for years about the possible military dimensions of its nuclear program. There is no linkage whatsoever between the removal of restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and Iran's behavior. In 10 years, Iran could be even more aggressive toward its neighbors, sponsor even more terrorism around the globe and work even harder to destroy Israel, and the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program would still be automatically removed. Because states throughout our region know that the deal paves Iran's path to the bomb, a number of them will race to get nuclear weapons of their own. Nuclear terrorism and nuclear war would become far more likely. Israel has the most to gain if the Iranian nuclear issue is peacefully resolved, but this deal makes things much worse, increasing the chances of conventional war with Iran and its terror proxies today and dramatically increasing the chances of a nuclear-armed Iran and a nuclearized Middle East tomorrow.