West Reaches Deal with Iran to Loosen Sanctions

In a negotiated deal that apparently allows Iran off the hook with regard to nuclear development and goes soft on verification protocols with regard to nuclear disarmament, the United States, along with France, Germany, China, Russia, Great Britain, and the European Union, has now endorsed an easing of sanctions on the Shiite theocracy. 

Signed at 3 a.m. in Geneva, the deal would, according to The Washington Post, “allow limited uranium enrichment, although under tight restrictions and heavy international monitoring.” The Iranians continue to insist on the West acknowledging a right to nuclear development, a point still under negotiation. Trade restrictions and freezes on Iranian currency accounts overseas would be loosened.

A similar deal with the regime in North Korea in 1993 ended with that regime going fully nuclear in 2006.

Israel has continued to maintain opposition to the deal, which it views as significantly too soft on Iran. In the main, the deal buys time for Iran to continue its nuclear development – and, as Israel has argued, Iran remains perilously close to development of its first nuclear weapon, which would dramatically shift the balance of power in the region away from the Jewish state. The deal effectively forestalls any Israeli military action thanks to the West’s tacit endorsement of a “process” that will supposedly end in Iran disarming, but will far more likely end with Iran going nuclear. 

The Iran deal marks the second brokered deal within six months that leaves brutal anti-Western regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction better off than they would otherwise have been. Just a few months ago, the United States signed off on an agreement brokered by the Russian government that left Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in power even after Assad used chemical weapons on his own people – and even after President Obama declared use of such weapons a “red line” bearing consequences.

The approach of the Obama administration in the Middle East seems to be one of making parchment agreements without any real verification or enforcement mechanisms. Each agreement puts Israel in a worse position. And while the world press announces triumphantly that the Obama administration is achieving peace in our time, the world grows closer and closer to the world’s worst regimes armed with the world’s most dangerous weapons – all presided over by a weak-kneed White House intent on minimizing American influence around the globe.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.