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The Iran Deal, One Year In
(Foreign Policy) Raymond Tanter - In Washington, support is growing for the notion that the Obama administration has failed to hold Tehran accountable for nuclear violations, downplayed Iran's economic windfall from sanctions relief, and ignored the deal's negative regional implications for state sponsorship of terrorism. Critics hoped in vain that the nuclear deal would place explicit limits on ballistic missiles. The burden, however, was left to the UN rather than the parties to the deal. In selling the nuclear deal, Secretary of State John Kerry assured Congress that the administration would provide a robust diplomatic response to Tehran's missile launches. Sadly, such was not the case. In selling the nuclear deal, the administration also expressed a hope and implied an expectation that Tehran would moderate its participation in terrorism. But the U.S. State Department's 2015 Country Report on Terrorism has called Iran the top state sponsor of terrorist activities, irrespective of the nuclear deal. The writer was a former member of the National Security Council staff and Representative of the Secretary of Defense to arms control talks during the Reagan-Bush Administration.