EMET is Deeply Concerned with the P5+1’s Announcement of a “Framework Agreement” with the Islamic Republic of Iran

(Washington, DC, April 2, 2015) Today, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) deplored the announced framework between Iran and the P 5 +1 nations, led by President Obama, which is not a binding agreement, and merely provides a framework for future discussions between the parties.  In reality, this framework just demonstrates that the West is continuing to promise future concessions to Iran, while also giving it more time to build its nuclear infrastructure, adding to the almost two years Iran has already been given by President Obama.  EMET also called for the U.S. Congress to pass S. 269, the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act and S. 615, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which would both strengthen U.S. leverage for any final agreement and require Congressional ratification of any final deal.

On April 2, it was reported that Iran and P 5 +1 have reached a tentative framework agreement on key parts of a deal that they claim would sharply curtail Tehran’s nuclear program.  The State Department has released a “fact sheet” highlighting this framework.  According to the fact sheet: 1) Western sanctions against Iran will be lifted after a sign off from the IAEA; 2) the Islamic Republic of Iran gets to keep over 6000 of its nuclear centrifuges spinning, including a 1000 of them at the previously hidden and illegal fortified bunker of Fordow; 3) Islamist Iran has agreed to redesign and rebuild the heavy water nuclear reactor at Arak so it does not produce plutonium; 4) the IAEA will be given full access to all Iranian sites; and 5) the final deal will last for a term of 10 years.

Even if this framework agreement accurately represents an eventual final deal between the P 5 +1 and Islamist Iran, it will still represent a colossal failure of diplomacy.

In contrast to earlier U.S. led UN resolutions, Iran will be given the right to possess nuclear power and domestically enrich uranium.  In fact, Iran can keep enriching 6,000 centrifuges, even though 6,000 centrifuges would not give Iran the capacity to produce enough uranium to run power plants for peaceful purposes – but it does give that nation the capacity to enrich uranium to make nuclear bombs.  The Islamic Republic of Iran will also be allowed to continue to utilize the underground and heavily fortified Fordow facility, although supposedly they will not be enriching uranium.  The Arak heavy water reactor, which is unnecessary for the development of peaceful nuclear power, will still be in existence, although it supposedly will be rebuilt to be less dangerous.

In return for all this, the U.S. and the rest of the world will drop all sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran pending a verification from the IAEA.  Supposedly, if Iran violates the final agreement, which it has done before with prior nuclear agreements, the West will simply “snap back the sanctions.”  However, as FDD expert Mark Dubowitz has stated:

“The snapback is a delusion. Reimposing sanctions is harder than it sounds. Amongst the United States, EU and UNSC, there are bound to be significant disputes on the evidence, differing assessments of the seriousness of infractions, fierce debates about the appropriate level of response and concerns about Iranian retaliation.  It’s also important to remember that when sanctions were first implemented, it took years before a critical mass of international companies terminated their business ties with Tehran. Once strictures are loosened, with so many international companies positioning to get back into Iran, it will be very difficult to persuade these companies to leave again. The Iranian regime will also adopt countermeasures to minimize its economic exposure to Western pressure when it anticipates that it will violate any nuclear agreement.”

Also, President Obama’s already announced diplomatic plan to bypass Congress is both a violation of the U.S. Constitution and of U.S. statutory law.  It is clearly an arms control treaty, yet President Obama has admitted that he has no plans to seek Senatorial advice and consent, which is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.  The deal also violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a valid treaty which was submitted to and consented to by the U.S. Senate, and thus is now a statutory law that cannot be trumped by an Executive Agreement or a UN Security Council resolution.

It is vital to remember that the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the bitterest and most dangerous foreign enemies to the United States.  Since 1979, and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, the Iranian regime has committed numerous acts of war against the U.S.  It has supported and directed terrorists that have killed hundreds of Americans, including Marines, in the 1983 bombings in Beirut, and in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers; it has supplied IEDs to Iraqi rebels during the 2000’s that have killed hundreds if not thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it planned a 2011 bombing of a Washington, DC restaurant to kill the Saudi Ambassador.  Iran has been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for thirty years.  Every year, the Islamist Regime holds celebrations of the seizing of the American Embassy where crowds chant “Death to America” and burn American flags.  A few weeks ago, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself called for “Death to America,” just a day after President Barack Obama appealed to Iran to seize a “historic opportunity” for a nuclear deal.  Iran is also currently developing intercontinental ballistic missiles which are only necessary for Iran to threaten the continental U.S. and Europe.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is also a dedicated enemy towards the U.S.’s strongest Middle East ally, and the only democratic nation in that region, Israel.  Iran has sponsored both Shia and Sunni Arab terror groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas, which have gone to war against Israel multiple times, and have targeted and killed hundreds of Israeli civilians.  It even increased support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a non-Muslim Arab terror group, which in November of 2014 attacked a Jerusalem synagogue and hacked to death three American Jews and two others.  Iranian leaders frequently call for Israel’s destruction, and often in hysterical and genocidal terms.  Recently, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Twitter that the “barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel” must be annihilated, and personally posted a nine point plan to do just that.

Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has implemented an aggressive plan to dominate the Middle East, and post-2013, it has actually bragged of its success.  Iran has long waged a covert campaign to turn Iraq into a virtual client of Tehran — and in the process alienated Iraqi Sunnis and pushed them toward extremism.  By 2015, it has largely succeeded in making the Shia government of Baghdad into an Iranian puppet government. Iran has also propped up the Basher Assad dictatorship in Syria, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Arab civilians, and allowed for Sunni jihadists groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS to take advantage of the chaos by creating their own territories.   Iran continues to rule Lebanon, through its brutal jihadist proxy, the terror group Hezbollah, which prior to 911 had more American blood on its hands than any other Islamist terror group.   Iran is fomenting unrest among Bahrain’s Shiite majority in an attempt to force regime change in the oil-rich Sunni monarchy that is allied with the U.S.  And just recently, Iranian sponsored Shia rebels in Yemen have seized most of that nation.  As a result of that action, Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been forced to invade Yemen, to prevent Iranian allies from being able to threaten world commerce by cutting off oil trade through the strategically crucial Bab al Mandeb strait.

Because of recent Islamist Iranian aggression, a bad final deal will prompt other Middle Eastern nations to also seek nuclear weapons.   A Saudi Arabian official recently promised that the Saudis will demand the same rights (and nuclear weapons) as the Iranians; and the Saudis can easily purchase nuclear weapons on the world market.   Egypt and Turkey are also implementing their own nuclear programs.  And the other, smaller Gulf States are likely to follow.  This agreement will end up making the Middle East a nuclear powder keg ready to explode at any minute.

“President Obama’s announced ‘framework agreement, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said founder and President of EMET Sarah Stern, “is smoke and mirrors.  Since the true leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, has not signed onto anything, it is important to keep in mind that we cannot assume that anything announced today will actually make it into the final deal come June. Iran’s nuclear program will continue to function as it has for the 18 months and two extensions since the JPOA started.  Also, this framework agreement may be showcasing further concessions we in the West have promised to the radical Iranians.”  Stern continued, “This framework agreement with the Islamic Republic could potentially set up a future comprehensive deal which violates virtually all of the United States’ national interests by: endangering our own citizens, the citizens of the other nations of the Middle East, most especially our strong ally, Israel; solidifying the power of Islamist Iran, which is currently threatening the entire Middle East; increasing the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East (and the world); and threatening the world oil market with Iranian blackmail.”  She concluded, “the U.S. Congress, and the American people, must do everything in their power to prevent this framework agreement from becoming an unconstitutional and illegal final agreement to appease Islamist Iran.”