WASHINGTON – Six major nations struck a deal Sunday with Iran that would curb that nation’s advancing nuclear ambitions.
Iran’s nuclear program – which its officials have stated is for peaceful purposes, but some other countries contend is driven by military ambitions – has been a matter of international concern since the discovery in 2003 that the country had concealed its nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the United Nations said.
The deal signed on Sunday is only the first in many proposed steps. It requires Iran to temporarily freeze its nuclear program (while leaving it fully intact) in exchange for a lessening of Western sanctions. Read more about the specifics of the deal here.
President Obama hailed the agreement Sunday.
“Since I took office, I’ve made clear my determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” President Obama said. “we have pursued intensive diplomacy — bilaterally with the Iranians, and together with our P5-plus-1 partners — the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China, as well as the European Union. Today, that diplomacy opened up a new path toward a world that is more secure — a future in which we can verify that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful and that it cannot build a nuclear weapon.”
The President laid out the basics of the agreement: “For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back. Iran has committed to halting certain levels of enrichment and neutralizing part of its stockpiles. Iran cannot use its next-generation centrifuges, which are used for enriching uranium. Iran cannot install or start up new centrifuges, and its production of centrifuges will be limited. Iran will halt work at its plutonium reactor. And new inspections will provide extensive access to Iran’s nuclear facilities and allow the international community to verify whether Iran is keeping its commitments.”
Israel was not happy about the agreement.
“What was agreed last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement, it is a historic mistake,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Sunday’s cabinet meeting. “Today the world has become much more dangerous because the most dangerous regime in the world took a significant step to getting the most dangerous weapon in the world.”
President Obama said this agreement give Iran a chance to join the international community.
“The burden is on Iran to prove to the world that its nuclear program will be exclusively for peaceful purposes. If Iran seizes this opportunity, the Iranian people will benefit from rejoining the international community, and we can begin to chip away at the mistrust between our two nations. This would provide Iran with a dignified path to forge a new beginning with the wider world based on mutual respect. If, on the other hand, Iran refuses, it will face growing pressure and isolation.”
I wish there was a way for those Iranians who believe in Shariah Law, particularly the crude stoning practices against women and homosexuals, to be differentiated from those who don’t, so they could be surgically terminated by drone strikes, and special forces operations. Not all Iranians are bad. I know one who recently became a citizen to the US who is a very gentle and nice man. His family fled Iran when the Islamicists of 1979 took over. His father is a retired anesthesiologist in Los Angeles, and he a dentist. The point? Probably only 50% of Iranians are worthy of extermination. Obama has to figure out a way to preserve them.
I would love for surgical air strikes to begin on Tehran tomorrow, because I hate the Iranian regime with all my heart…as I do the Saudi Arabian and many other violators of human rights.
Low and slow is probably the only way to get anything done, and bringing them to the table is the first step to getting anywhere. War will only breed another round of Iranian Radical.
I knew Iranians that were here in the US in ’79 when the Shah was deposed as well. They were terrified to say the least.
Having lost contact with them I don’t know how things turned out. Just the fact that they were so scared made an impression on me about the abject depravity and terror Islam, a “religion” created by a cunning and vicious war lord.
Read the first sentence again. Carefully. 6 major nations worked together to get to this point. And, LVS, not all Iranians are “totally radical” just as all Americans aren’t fat.
Are you fat?
Nope
Yes, six major nations did work together on this deal – not one a neighbor to Iran.
As to moderate Islamic Iranians – they need to grow a pair and take down the nut jobs around them and not rely on the rest of the world to do their house cleaning.
Easier said than done.
Yes – but they need to actually make the effort and not rely on everyone else to clean their house.
My point was that this wasn’t President Obama’s deal. This was a collaborative effort by the most powerful nations.
If you really believe that I have some beach front property in Arizona I would like to talk to you about. Kerry, who is just a big a liberal as Osama Obama had his orders. The Great Muslim in D.C. wanted to give his buddy’s in Iran a bone and they did.
Gosh, LVS, you are so smart and know so much about what goes on behind the closed doors of Washington, I am surprised that you haven’t been called upon to serve our great nation as Secretary of State or something just like that.
@bodacious-I read, I listen, and I don’t just look at the left wing sites so it stands to reason I know more than you do. Try it sometime.
LVS, I have never known you to listen. I do, however, understand that you do read especially things other than left wing news sites and I respect you for that. You often do your homework but sometimes you misrepresent facts and sometimes you just get nasty.
It’s being reported that Obama started the push for this deal a year ago – so I think he owns it.
Obama could literally cure cancer and y’all would still complain.
This is an excellent first step with support from other major nations. I fail to see the downside to this.
@Calvin R.-You will see the downside when they drop the thing on you or your family.
This will never happen.
Iran may be slightly radical (mostly in their rhetoric)but they are not suicidal.
If Iran dropped a nuke, or was found to be the supplier of a nuke which went off, they would annihilated from the planet very quickly.
If this diplomacy isn’t the solution, I would ask what is the solution?
What about just keep on starving them to death. These people are totally radical and want nothing more than to destroy Israel and the United States. Anyone who believes any different is a fool. That would be Osama Obama and his puppet Kerry. Two of the biggest liars that have ever lived.
You have no clue Calvin, Iran’s only mission is to destroy Israel and the US. They would launch them in a minute and wait for retaliation, that is their way to the heaven they think they have. That is what they believe. They have trained and been a safe haven for most every terror attack around the world.
Calvin, they most certainly are suicidal.
“Support from other major nations” – how about support from their neighbors?
With all these totally true statements about our present Administration, PC will finally have to give in and post. Someone must finally come forth and stick up for this total mess we now have in DC. PC, we know you are reading.
This is yet another monumental screw up by the most incompetent President we’ve ever had; and even worse – a treaty negotiated by a Secretary of State that felt compelled to testify in front of Congress about his buddies in Viet Nam who later thoroughly discredited him when he tried to run for President.
Obama has done every thing he can do to destroy the U.S.A. and now he is starting on the rest of the world. When they finish getting the bomb I sure hope they drop it on D.C. first.
LVS, I agree, that would be a good start, I hope they get the aim thing figured out first though!