Turns out there was a good reason for the administration delaying public release of the signed “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) with Iran, for allowing only dribs and drabs to be leaked to the media over the course of several days.
Because the “deal,” such as it was, was, in effect, a declaration of surrender in the war begun on February 28. Iran’s claim that the MOU was a “humiliat[ion of] American and Zionist enemies” was pretty much on-target.
Some see President Trump’s penchant for contradicting himself and asserting things that are demonstrably false as his superpower; it keeps adversaries in the dark, confused and on their toes. Others see it less generously. But his remarks about the MOU brought his dissembling to a new level.
The man who had repeatedly demanded Tehran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” [sic] and who told the Iranian people to “take over your government!” since “America is backing you with overwhelming strength,” now describes the mullahs as “very rational people” who are “not radicalized” and “nice to deal with.” And who now insists that he “never cared about regime change.”
The president, who has been a great friend to Israel until now, once described the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missiles as one of the war’s goals. Now he thinks that, “If other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some.” (Other countries have them, of course, for self-defense, not for attacking countries they consider to be “satans.”)
Am I being too judgmental? Well, I’m in good company.
“There’s a word for this: debacle” was New York Times columnist Bret Stephens’ take on the MOU. “This pretense of a peace is an act of geopolitical self-harm that will haunt our standing in the world for years to come.”
Republican lawmaker Bill Cassidy called the agreement “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
“A disaster that does not achieve any of the actual…goals that were set by the administration at the beginning,” said Ben Shapiro.
Iran played the president “like a violin” was former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s conclusion.
“Trump isn’t thinking about the geo-strategic implications of the deal,” explains Mr. Bolton. “He’s thinking of one thing. He wants the strait open… He wants the price of gasoline at the pump down. That’s all he cares about.”
The MOU boasts that Iran agrees to “not procure or develop nuclear weapons.” So, of course, did the JCPOA, the Obama plan—and there, with details. In 2018, Israeli intelligence procured secret Iranian files that proved Iran had a clandestine nuclear weapons development program. Liars gonna lie.
On the most important issues, the MOU’s timidity and vagueness are nothing short of remarkable.
The single paragraph that addresses Iran’s nuclear program requires the country to “down-blend” the approximately 11 tons of enriched nuclear material it holds, much of it enriched to just short of bomb grade. But it does not require Iran to surrender that material and ship it out of the country.
The Obama agreement (called “disastrous” by the current president) required Iran to ship approximately 98% of its enriched uranium stockpile—then, well below bomb grade and much smaller than today because of Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from JCPOA—out of the country.
Vice President Vance, trying to defend the MOU, said, “If you think this is a bad deal, what is your alternative?”
Irony abounds. In 2015, amid attacks on the JCPOA deal, President Obama said: “I’m hearing a lot of…‘this is a bad deal.’ What I haven’t heard is, what is your preferred alternative?”
The incurable optimist in me argues that, even if the MOU leaves the most important issues unresolved, perhaps the future negotiations will yield something stronger than the JCPOA deal. After all, Iran has now experienced military attacks that could be resumed. Indeed, President Trump, capricious as always, after waxing cool in his adulatory words about the mullahs, reverted to waxing hot, saying, “If [Iran’s leaders] don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, OK?”
Then again, the mullahs can also go back to enriching uranium and blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
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