Required Reading

Top White House negotiator Lando Calrissian meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. (Not an AP photo)

Fred Fleitz performs a line-by-line vivisection of Administration claims about the “framework” deal with Iran, and here are the two that caught my eye:

There will be robust and intrusive inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Misleading. IAEA inspectors will only have access to declared nuclear sites associated with peaceful nuclear activities. Although Obama officials claim Iran will allow intrusive inspections of suspected covert and military nuclear sites, Tehran has long resisted permitting this and refused to comply with a November 2013 agreement with the IAEA to answer questions about 12 areas of possible nuclear weapons-related work. While Obama officials have asserted that Iran will be required to permit inspections of possible military-related nuclear sites under an agreement known as the IAEA additional, Tehran has refused to honor this agreement since the nation signed it in 2003. Moreover, according to a joint EU/Iran statement on the framework agreement, Iran has only agreed to “provisional application” of the Additional Protocol.

Iran also reportedly has rejected snap inspections of nuclear sites which means it could delay inspections of these sites until it removed evidence of possible nuclear related activity.

The Arak heavy water reactor will be re-designed so it will not produce weapons-grade plutonium.

False. It is impossible to operate a heavy-water reactor without producing plutonium. Although this reactor might produce less plutonium by redesigning it, the only way to prevent plutonium production is to convert this reactor it into a light-water reactor, an option that the U.S. and European states proposed but Iran rejected.

Iran disagrees with the Obama administration’s claim that the Arak reactors’ core will be removed so it produces less plutonium. An Iranian statement on the framework says this plant “will remain” and will “be updated and modernized.”

This deal keeps getting worse all the time — and it started out bad.

Yesterday Roger L. Simon asked “Munich, Anyone?” but at least Neville Chamberlain meant well.