Long before world powers and Iran agreed on a nuclear deal in late November, Iran’s unofficial lobby in the United States had penetrated the Oval Office, influencing key players — no one more than the president himself.
In he wee hours of the morning on November 24 after 18 hours of negotiationsIran and world powers reached an agreement to temporarily curbTehran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars of sanctions relief.
The deal was heralded as a victory by the Obama administration and immediately blasted by its critics includingIsrael. Though the United Nations Security Council had passed no fewer than six resolutions demanding that Iran completely dismantle its nuclear program the Geneva deal left every one of Iran’s centrifuges intact allowed Iran to enrich up to 5 percent uranium and did not require Iran to disassemble its Arak nuclear facility which could one day produce plutonium an alternative route to the bomb.
The road toGenevabegan in 2008 when the newly elected president made clear his intentions to engageIranand reach a deal by “doing away with self-defeating preconditions.” These conditions apparently included acknowledgingIran’s “right” to peaceful nuclear energy.
Despite stiff opposition fromIsraeland putativeUSallies in the Gulf the White House forged ahead with a deal thatIsrael’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called a “historic mistake.”
Create a free account to keep reading.
