Amidst the mainstream media slavering over putative Russian hacks into the U.S. election, far more serious evil is emerging from the former Soviet Union in cahoots with Iran. And Barack Obama, not Donald Trump, is the enabler-in-chief. In his most dangerous act on his way out the door, the outgoing president is paving the way for Vladimir Putin to help the mullahs go nuclear.
From the AP:
Iran is to receive a huge shipment of natural uranium from Russia to compensate it for exporting tons of reactor coolant, diplomats say, in a move approved by the outgoing U.S. administration and other governments seeking to keep Tehran committed to a landmark nuclear pact.
Two senior diplomats said the transfer recently agreed by the U.S. and five other world powers that negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran foresees delivery of 116 metric tons (nearly 130 tons) of natural uranium. U.N. Security Council approval is needed but a formality, considering five of those powers are permanent Security Council members, they said.
[snip]
The natural uranium agreement comes at a sensitive time. With the incoming U.S. administration and many U.S. lawmakers already skeptical of how effective the nuclear deal is in keeping Iran’s nuclear program peaceful over the long term, they might view it as further evidence that Tehran is being given too many concessions.
Too many concessions? How about everything it wants?
As Omri Ceren explains in the most recent of his invaluable emails on the Iran deal:
The 2015 nuclear deal obligated Iran to keep no more than 130 metric tonnes of heavy water, a material used in the production of weapons-grade plutonium.
But the Iranians have continued to produce heavy water, and they exceeded the cap in February and November [a][b]. The violations functionally blackmailing the Obama administration: either someone would purchase the excess heavy water, allowing Iran to literally profit from violating the deal, or the Iranians would go into formal noncompliance, endangering the deal.
After the Iranians violated the deal in February the Obama administration purchased the excess heavy water for $8.6 million [c]. After they violated the deal in November State Department spokesperson Toner refused to call the overproduction a violation — “I’m not going to use the V word necessarily in this case” — and the Iranians eventually found someone else to purchase the excess [d].
Much as with the Affordable Care Act, Obama is apparently willing to do just about anything to preserve the Iran deal, only the latter is far more dangerous. Difficult as it may be, a democratic society can unwind or reform its healthcare system. You don’t unwind or reform a nuclear bomb.
Obama’s true motivation for making this so obviously destructive deal with Iran in the first place is mysterious, as are its numerous side agreements that have been hidden from view, even from the U.S. Congress. But from what we know of it, the deal seems to have been broken by the Iranians from its inception.
This is no cause for optimism. With the Iran deal, Obama has left Donald Trump with his most problematic issue. Greedy companies and nations worldwide are already making money from it. The situation is much more complicated, and potentially more perilous, than even the hideous activities of ISIS that dominate the news. A nuclear-armed Iran is ISIS on steroids.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media. His latest book is I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already. Follow him on Twitter @rogerlsimon.
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