Iran’s compliance raises hope for lasting progress
Last weekend’s rapid-fire chain of events emanating from the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear arms agreement with the West illustrates the power of negotiation and diplomacy to defuse potentially cataclysmic international conflicts.
In quick progression last Saturday, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran had complied with key disarmament planks of that agreement with the United States and other Western powers. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. and the European Union unlocked some $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets overseas and suspended long-standing oil, trade and financial sanctions.
In the same time frame, Iran quickly freed 10 American sailors whose patrol boats last week mistakenly drifted into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf and released five other Americans, some of whom had been held captive for years.
Collectively, these encouraging developments discredit many of the critics of the Iran nuclear arms deal who feared blatant noncompliance and unbridled chicanery by Iranians. At the same time, however, those positive developments do not lessen the ongoing necessity for the West to aggressively monitor Iran’s compliance every step of the way. Former President Ronald Reagan’s sage and signature policy of “trust but verify” must apply for years to come in Iran, just as it did toward the former Soviet Union after a similar nuclear-arms pact in the 1980s.
LANDMARK GOALS ACHIEVED
Nonetheless, this month’s developments buoy hopes of achieving some of the landmark goals that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, lead negotiator in the talks, envisioned. The West had long suspected Iran’s nuclear program had military components and applications. The dismantling and downsizing of Iran’s arsenal greatly lessen the risk of nuclear warfare in that region and worldwide.
Specifically, the IAEA confirmed that Iran had shipped more than 8.5 tons of enriched uranium to Russia so Iran can’t use that in bomb-making, disabled more than 12,000 centrifuges and poured concrete into the core of a reactor at Arak designed to produce plutonium.
President Barack Obama hailed the moves, saying they “cut off every single path Iran could have used to build a bomb.”
What’s more, the heightened diplomatic engagement cemented by the talks no doubt played a role in Iran’s rapid release of the American sailors and hostages. Back in the days when Iranian leaders publicly decried the U.S. as “the Great Satan” of the world, the capture of U.S. military personnel likely would have spiraled into a dangerous and out-of-control international quagmire.
To be sure, however, compliance with the nuclear agreement and the release of the Americans do not give Iran carte-blanche authority to run slipshod over other United Nations resolutions or international law. President Obama drove home that point forcefully Sunday, when he clamped new sanctions against 11 Iranian companies and individuals for their involvement in two illegal ballistic missile tests last fall. The sanctions prevent them from using the U.S. banking system.
The sanctions also send a message that the U.S. refuses to be a patsy for any and all duplicitous Iranian shenanigans. As this year of dizzying developments in warming Iranian-American relations continues to unfold, the religious and secular leadership of Iran would be wise to keep that stern message foremost in mind.