NCRI Staff
NCRI – In the coming months, the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal will come under a great deal of scrutiny in the US as the deadline for Donald Trump’s ultimation draws closer.
Last month, Trump said that if the flaws with the nuclear deal (also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of JCPOA) are not fixed by May then he will withdraw the US from the deal.
Trump’s conditions for the deal include:
• Requiring Iran to allow immediate inspections at all sites requested by international inspectors as the Regime currently delays these requests long enough to clean the sites and refuses access to some sites altogether
• Ensure that Iran never comes close to possessing a nuclear weapon by removing the so-called sunset clauses that allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon in a matter of years
• Put automatic sanctions in place for violations
• Tackling Iran’s nuclear and missile programs as one
Someone who will be incredibly influential in determining the deal’s fate is Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland.
The Democrat is jointly responsible, with Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee for the Cardin-Corker amendment that enshrines the JCPOA in US law.
This amendment was cited by Trump in October as proof that Iran was noncompliant with the nuclear deal because it included the non-binding UN resolution against Iran’s testing of ballistic missiles and technically meant that Iran was violating the deal with the US, even if we believe that they weren’t violating other aspects.
Cardin and Corker were recently involved in negotiations with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster over draft legislation related to Trump’s ultimatum.
Some in the US have brought up that if the US withdraws, then the JCPOA itself will collapse as Europe, China, and Russia (the other signatories to the deal) would rather trade with the US than Iran.
Skip Auld, a member of the Peace Corps Iran Association, begged Cardin to save the nuclear deal.
He wrote that jeopardising the JCPOA would lead to more war, Iran pursuing nuclear weapons and possibly creating an arms race in the Middle East, make it harder to negotiate with Iran, and undermine US credibility.
This is not exactly true. Iran is already violating the nuclear deal, so why should the rest of the world abide by it? At least this way, they’d know where they stood.
Also, Iran has refused to negotiate on other issues, like human rights, while the nuclear deal has been in place, so why should we worry about them refusing to negotiate after the deal collapses?
Congress should vote to withdraw from the deal if these amendments can’t be agreed to.