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Resurrecting the Iran Nuclear Deal Would Be an Epic Mistake

(Telegraph-UK) Liam Fox - The 2015 Iran nuclear deal was a fundamentally flawed agreement. Not only did it abandon the original aim of preventing Iran from ever becoming a nuclear weapon state, but it failed to tackle Iran's ballistic missile program, its systematic destabilization of its regional neighbors, or its championing of terrorist groups like Hizbullah and Hamas. Now, negotiations are being resurrected, but has anything fundamentally changed? Iran has continued its nuclear program and its stockpile of enriched uranium is now massively greater than permitted, with some of it just below the level of purity needed for a nuclear bomb. In defiance of the UN, it has also continued with its ballistic missile program. In 2018, both the UK and France accused Iran of breaching its obligations by testing medium-range ballistic missiles, which were capable of carrying multiple warheads. Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah proudly boasts: "As long as Iran has money, so does Hizbullah." The implications of lifting sanctions on Iran are crystal-clear. It is through such proxies that Iran targets Israel and Israeli interests and gives effect to the long-standing hatred of Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, for the very existence of the Israeli state. To remove sanctions on Iranian oil without guarantees of stopping such activities would risk money being poured into the funding of groups who are fundamentally anti-West. How, in any rational world, could that be regarded as progress? We have seen in the horrors enforced on Ukraine by Putin's Kremlin why wishful thinking is a poor basis for foreign and security policy. How irresponsible and foolish we would be to repeat the mistakes with Iran. MP Liam Fox is a former UK Defense Secretary.
2022-03-24 00:00:00
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