Nuke Deal with Iran: Top Democrats and Republicans “Skeptical” – Israel “Condemns”

Posted by Tina

While we lay sleeping in our beds last night a preliminary deal was struck with Iran over their nuclear capability program.

A very good article in The American Spectator lays out the soft terms of the deal:

Iran is getting billions of dollars in sanctions relief (which President Obama will effect by executive order) in exchange for chemically degrading its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium through oxidization — without giving up any of its 3.5% enriched uranium. Uranium enrichment is not a linear process: 3.5% enrichment is about 60% of the way to 90% enrichment — that is, to weapons-grade uranium — and 20% enrichment is about 90% of the way to 90% enrichment.

Up until now, Iran had enough 20% enriched uranium to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for bomb in a month or less (former IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen told me and other reporters on a conference call last month that “if certain arrangements are done, it can even go down to two weeks”). But because Iran has built such a large number of centrifuges and built up such a large stock of low-enriched uranium, it can replenish its supply of 20% uranium within a month. Optimistically, then, this extends Iran’s potential break-out time to build a weaponizable uranium stockpile from a month to two months.

That wouldn’t be so bad if the Iranians weren’t allowed to continue to enrich more uranium. .

The deal, which was brokered by Secretary Kerry, western powers, China, and Russia might as well have been a gift…very little was asked of Iran. The deal is being viewed with a skeptical eye by top legislators from both parties in Congress. Some vow to continue sanctions:

New York Democrat Chuck Schummer said the deal was disproportionately good for Iran and that it was strong sanctions that gave the US and our allies leverage with Tehran. He believes Republicans will join with Democrats to pass additional sanctions when the Congress meets again in December.

John Boehner issued the following statement: “The interim deal has been and will continue to be met with healthy skepticism and hard questions, not just of the Iranians, but of ourselves and our allies involved in the negotiations. If the U.S. doesn’t keep the pressure up, we will look back on the interim deal as a remarkably clever Iranian move to dismantle the international sanctions regime while maintaining its infrastructure and material to pursue a break-out nuclear capability.”

The BBC reports on the appeasing opinion:

The US secretary of state has said the deal reached on Sunday over Iran’s nuclear programme will make Israel and the Middle East a safer place.

John Kerry was speaking after Iran agreed to curb some of its nuclear activities in return for about $7bn (£4.3bn) in sanctions relief. …

…UK Prime Minister David Cameron said it “demonstrates how persistent diplomacy and tough sanctions can together help us to advance our national interest”.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the deal, saying it would “help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon”.

The leader whose country has the most to lose if the appeasers are wrong, Benjamin Netanyahu, had a much different take:

“What was agreed last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement, it is a historic mistake,” he said. “Today the world has become much more dangerous because the most dangerous regime in the world took a significant step to getting the most dangerous weapon in the world.”

For the first time, he said, the leading powers of the world agreed to uranium enrichment in Iran, while removing sanctions that it has taken years to build up in exchange for “cosmetic Iranian concession that are possible to do away with in a matter of weeks.”

Netanyahu said the consequences of this deal threaten many countries, including Israel. He reiterated what he has said in the past, that Israel is not obligated by the agreement.

I have to agree with Netanyahu. I can’t imagine thinking that a country that has repeatedly stated it’s desires to eliminate Israel and Western nations, including America, is a country that can be trusted:

AFP – Israel is a “cancerous tumour” that will soon be finished off, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday told demonstrators holding an annual protest against the existence of the Jewish state.

“The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumour. Even if one cell of them is left in one inch of (Palestinian) land, in the future this story (of Israel’s existence) will repeat,” he said in a speech in Tehran marking Iran’s Quds Day that was broadcast on state television.

“The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land…. A new Middle East will definitely be formed. With the grace of God and help of the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no trace of the Americans and Zionists,” he said.

The Iranians have changed their front man but they have not changed their ways. I fear our President and his Secretary of State are being played.

This article was updated at 6:50