We\u2019ve just seen the future of the Iran nuclear arms deal, and it ain\u2019t pretty.
\nIt looks much like the deal we signed with Syria on chemical weapons, which was widely applauded three years ago as the epitome of smart diplomacy, but is unraveling.
\nYou may remember how in the summer of 2013, America was on the verge of joining the war in Syria after dictator Bashar al-Assad was caught using chemical bombs \u2014 crossing President Obama\u2019s \u201cred line.\u201d But instead, we joined hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and signed a deal with Assad intended to peacefully remove chemical stockpiles from the regime\u2019s hands.
\nWhy\u2019d we back off? In a new book, \u201cThe Iran Wars,\u201d the Wall Street Journal\u2019s Jay Solomon reports that Tehran threatened to end secret negotiations with Obama\u2019s diplomats if the United States took military action against its ally Assad. For Obama, those talks were apparently more important than enforcing his own red line.
\nThe deal: We wouldn\u2019t bomb Syria, and Assad would sign a global convention banning the use of chemical arms.
\nUnder the watchful eye of the international community, he\u2019d remove Syria\u2019s chemical stockpiles and destroy all its chemical plants.
\nAdministration officials crowed about their smart diplomacy. Even Israel\u2019s Benjamin Netanyahu was complimentary: He hailed the \u201cgood\u201d Syria deal while warning against signing a \u201cbad\u201d Iran deal.
\nAnd indeed, UN inspectors oversaw an unprecedented operation, which in record time destroyed Syria\u2019s chemical arms and infrastructure, and securely disposed of toxic agents at sea. America
\nfinanced most of the operation, while other countries pitched in. The UN agency in charge, the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, won a Nobel Peace Prize.
\nIt was a complex and difficult operation, but problem solved. And without war.
\nExcept it wasn\u2019t.
\nThis week\u2019s UN report examined nine separate cases of post-deal chemical attacks in Syria (other chemical attacks are still taking place but are yet to be investigated). Two such attacks, with industrial chlorine, were conducted by Assad\u2019s army. One, a mustard-gas affair, was blamed on ISIS. The other six incidents remain under investigation.
\nOh, and a separate OPCW report, leaked this week to Foreign Policy magazine, details how traces of chemical precursors were discovered in several sites whose existence Syria never bothered to report in the first place.
\nThat\u2019s \u201craising new questions about whether Damascus has abided by its commitment to destroy all its [chemical] armaments,\u201d according to the magazine.
\nNo kidding. For decades, chemical warfare was deeply ingrained in Syria\u2019s war doctrine. Syrian generals and their Iranian backers never gave up on it, conventions be damned.
\nBut chemical weapons are a \u201cbarbaric tool, repugnant to the conscience of mankind,\u201d according to our UN ambassador, Samantha Power. Their use by the Syrian regime challenges the entire chemical convention, she wrote in a statement this week. And, Power added, she expects \u201cswift action\u201d by a unified UN Security Council to punish Syria.
\nWon\u2019t happen. Sure, next week Security Council members will study the report. Some will propose sanctions against Syria, or even call for sending Assad or his henchmen to be tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But Assad\u2019s ally, Russia, is widely expected to veto any such proposal.
\nSo after we \u201ctook away\u201d the dictator\u2019s most lethal weapons, Assad keeps and uses them. And keeps them for future reference. And gets away with murder.
\nJust like his counterpart in North Korea, who signed deals to dismantle his nuclear program, which he\u2019s been violating ever since. Dictators will sign deals to placate us and then cheat. It\u2019s what they do.
\nUnless, of course, we prepare in advance a potent punishment for violations. In Syria we didn\u2019t. The US military, by design, has a supporting role there. The Security Council is deadlocked. Yes, name and shame, but we have no other serious tools.
\nSimilarly, we (prematurely) took the military option off the table to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. All we can do now is pray the mullahs keep their end of a diplomatic deal, and that they won\u2019t cheat \u2014 any more than they already are, of course.
\nPray very, very hard, that is.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/span> New York Post<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019ve just seen the future of the Iran nuclear arms deal, and it ain\u2019t pretty. It looks much like the deal we signed with Syria on chemical weapons, which was widely applauded three years ago as the epitome of smart diplomacy, but is unraveling. You may remember how in the summer of 2013, America was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[418,417,56,12,419,71,44,83,59],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-assad","tag-chemical-weapons","tag-deal","tag-iran","tag-north-korea","tag-obama","tag-russia","tag-syria","tag-un"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}