By Charles Krauthammer
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Congress is finally having its say on the Iran deal. It
will be an elaborate charade, however, because, having first gone to the U.N.,
President Obama has largely drained congressional action of relevance. At the
Security Council, he pushed through a resolution ratifying the deal, thus
officially committing the United States as a nation to its implementation — in
advance of any congressional action.
The resolution abolishes the entire legal framework,
built over a decade, underlying the international sanctions against Iran. A few
months from now, they will be gone.
The script is already written: The International Atomic
Energy Agency, relying on Iran’s self-inspection (!) of its most sensitive
nuclear facility, will declare Iran in compliance. The agreement then goes into
effect and Iran’s nuclear program is officially deemed peaceful.
Sanctions are lifted. The mullahs receive $100 billion of
frozen assets as a signing bonus. Iran begins reaping the economic bonanza,
tripling its oil exports and welcoming a stampede of foreign companies back
into the country.
It is all precooked. Last month, Britain’s foreign
secretary traveled to Tehran with an impressive delegation of British companies
ready to deal. He was late, however. The Italian and French foreign ministers
had already been there, accompanied by their own hungry businessmen and oil
companies. Iran is back in business.
As a matter of constitutional decency, the president
should have submitted the deal to Congress first. And submitted it as a treaty.
Which it obviously is. No international agreement in a generation matches this
one in strategic significance and geopolitical gravity.
Obama did not submit it as a treaty because he knew he
could never get the constitutionally required votes for ratification. He’s not
close to getting two-thirds of the Senate. He’s not close to getting a simple
majority. No wonder: In the latest Pew Research Center poll, the American
people oppose the deal by a staggering 28-point margin.
To get around the Constitution, Obama negotiated a
swindle that requires him to garner a mere one-third of one house of Congress.
Indeed, on Thursday, with just 42 Senate supporters — remember, a treaty
requires 67 — the Democrats filibustered and prevented, at least for now, the
Senate from voting on the deal at all.
But Obama two months ago enshrined the deal as
international law at the U.N. Why should we care about the congressional vote?
In order to highlight the illegitimacy of Obama’s constitutional runaround and
thus make it easier for a future president to overturn the deal, especially if
Iran is found to be cheating.
As of now, however, it is done. Iran will be both
unleashed — sanctions lifted, economy booming, with no treaty provisions
regarding its growing regional aggression and support for terrorists — and
welcomed as a good international citizen possessing a peaceful nuclear program.
An astonishing trick.
Iran’s legitimation will not have to wait a decade, after
which, as the Iranian foreign minister boasts, the U.N. file on the Iranian
nuclear program will be closed, all restrictions will be dropped and, as Obama
himself has admitted, the breakout time to an Iranian bomb will become
essentially zero. On the contrary. The legitimation happens now. Early next
year, Iran will be officially recognized as a peaceful nuclear nation.
This is a revolution in Iran’s international standing,
yet its consequences have been largely overlooked. The deal goes beyond merely
leaving Iran’s nuclear infrastructure intact. Because the deal legitimizes that
nuclear program as peaceful (unless proven otherwise — don’t hold your breath),
it is entitled to international assistance. Hence the astonishing provision
buried in Annex III, Section 10 committing Western experts to offering the
Iranian program our nuclear expertise.
Specifically “training courses and workshops.” On what?
Among other things, on how to protect against “sabotage.”
Imagine: We are now to protect Iran against, say, the
very Stuxnet virus, developed by the NSA and Israel’s Unit 8200, that for years
disrupted and delayed an Iranian bomb.
Secretary of State John Kerry has darkly warned Israel to
not even think about a military strike on the nuclear facilities of a regime
whose leader said just Wednesday that Israel will be wiped out within 25 years.
The Israelis are now being told additionally — Annex III, Section 10 — that if
they attempt just a defensive, nonmilitary cyberattack (a Stuxnet II), the West
will help Iran foil it.
Ask those 42 senators if they even know about this
provision. And how they can sign on to such a deal without shame and revulsion.
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