Iran Spells Trouble
Long before the controversial Iran nuclear agreement was set in motion by the Obama Administration, Republicans voiced their strong opposition to engaging and negotiating with the terrorist regime. Unfortunately, despite concerns from both lawmakers and many American citizens, President Obama chose to risk our nation’s security for an agreement that will undoubtedly increase volatility in the Middle East and ultimately pave the way for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. To call the Administration’s performance “disappointing” would be an understatement. “Disastrous” would be a more appropriate description of the president’s dealings with Iran. Since the agreement was announced last year, Iran has already indicated it has no intention of upholding its end of the deal.
As history clearly reveals, Iran is known for being a murderous regime that targets the United States and our allies or teams up with other bad actors to do so. Designated by the State Department as a sponsor of terror since 1984, Iran has time and again shown that its intentions and objectives are far from peaceful. Given its violent and dishonest track record, Iran has never been deemed a reliable negotiating partner by the United States. Yet the Obama Administration still defends and continues its foolish and damaging dealings with the regime.
While President Obama claims progress is being made in the Middle East, it remains apparent that Iran stands to benefit from the president’s policies while those same policies have weakened and endangered our best friends and allies in the region. As expected, Iran has already shown that it will cheat and ignore the terms of the agreement negotiated by the Administration. Even before implementation of the agreement, Iran violated both the letter as well as the spirit of the deal. For example, it was discovered last month that Iran had tested a missile suited for a nuclear warhead—in violation with a United Nations Security Council resolution. Further, on the same day as the president’s State of the Union address this month, video surfaced of Iran’s capture, mistreatment and humiliation of 10 U.S. Navy sailors, who accidentally strayed off course into Iranian waters.
Despite those recent circumstances and signs that Iran cannot be trusted, the president missed an opportunity to show prudent leadership by halting implementation of the agreement. Instead, he went ahead several days ago and rewarded Iran’s bad behavior with an unbalanced and unfair prisoner exchange. The trade released five innocent American detainees, including a journalist and a Christian missionary, for seven Iranian criminals, three of which were accused of violating U.S. export laws by shipping equipment useful to Iran’s nuclear program. Simultaneously, the Administration directed that long-time economic sanctions imposed on Iran be officially lifted.
By lifting the sanctions on Iran, the regime now has billions more dollars at its disposal that will unquestionably go to fund terrorism or terrorist groups. In fact, during a recent interview, Secretary of State John Kerry even acknowledged, “I think that some of [the funds from sanctions relief] will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists.”
Clearly, President Obama and those advising him on foreign policy are incredibly misguided and out of touch with reality. In the fight against terror, it’s always better to build coalitions with our allies and partner with known friends. Unfortunately, the president has ignored common sense, historic reality and the advice of countless foreign policy experts by continually bowing down to the enemies of western society.
In the coming days, Congress will consider the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act, which would prevent terrorist organizations—the likes of which the government of Iran must surely be considered—from getting relief from economic sanctions. Sadly, however, this administration’s insistence on implementing a phony agreement with a terrorist regime, which has arguably been the biggest enemy of the United States since the end of the Cold War, will most likely end up being vetoed.
Seven long years of a foreign policy based on wishful thinking and capitulation have left America and our allies more vulnerable than we have been since the beginning of World War II. It's critical that our next president has the wisdom, fortitude and courage to reverse the damage of this administration.