John Kerry's Fantasies about Iran

Secretary of State John Kerry has been busy today -- explaining the details behind what have been called safeguards in the Iran deal. Kerry admitted that violations of any arms embargo by Iran or restrictions on its missile program would not cause an automatic "snapback" of United Nations sanctions under rhe nuclear deal, although Kerry said other options would be available. "The arms embargo is not tied to snapback," Kerry said. "It is tied to a separate set of obligations. So they are not in material breach of the nuclear agreement for violating the arms piece of it." Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event, Kerry said a new structure would be created to replace the UN panel of experts that has been monitoring Iranian compliance with the UN sanctions regime. Under the nuclear deal, that panel will be scrapped in the coming months. The elimination of the UN's Iran arms embargo and ballistic missile sanctions was introduced by Iran very late in the negotiations and labeled a "deal breaker" by the Iran team. Iran's insistence on being freed fron the arms embargo and ballistic missile sanctions near the conclusion of the lengthy negotiations between Iran ans the P5+1 world powers almost derailed the deal, but finally the Obama-Kerry team capitulated. Iran had the support of Russia and China in demanding the specific lifting of the embargo and sanctions under the nuclear agreement, which finally included keeping the arms embargo in place for up to five years and the missile restrictions for up to eight years. ~~~~~ Under the nuclear deal, sanctions on Iran would be lifted in exchange for long-term curbs on its nuclear program. Failure by Iran to comply with limitations on its nuclear program can lead to an automatic re-imposition of all UN sanctions, the so-called UN sanctions snapback. Until Kerry clarified the point, it had not been entirely clear if a breach of the arms embargo and missile sanctions could lead to a sanctions snapback. ~~~~ Bur, Kerry hurried to reassure us -- even without a restoration of UN sanctions, the United States and its allies would have "ample tools at our disposal" if Iran violated the arms embargo and missile sanctions. Kerry actually seems to believe what he said next : "There is a specific UN resolution outside of this agreement that prohibits them from sending weapons to Hezbollah. There is a separate and specific UN resolution that prohibits them from sending weapons to the shiite militia in Iraq." Kerry added that similar UN restrictions ban arms sales to the Houthis in Yemen, North Korea and other potential recipients of weapons from Iran. ~~~~~ Dear readers, I am simply astounded by Kerry's seeming belief that the UN has or will prevent Iran from providing arms and missiles to Hezbollah. Israel has several times used air strikes to destroy Iranian missile shipments to Hezbollah before they could be delivered. And if John Kerry had bothered to talk to America's own military, he would know that Iran is providing military advisors, trainers and equipment to Iraq's shiite militias. As for the Yemeni Houthis, a May 2015 UN report revealed that Iran has been arming the Houthis since 2009, confirming accusations made by Arab and Western countries against Iran regarding its support of the Houthis. The details were revealed in the UN report by the soon-to-be-disbanded panel of experts and presented to the Security Council's Iran Sanctions Committee. Before the UN report was published, Secretary Kerry said the US knows that Iran is supporting the Houthis, but he noted that Washington will not stand idly by nor will it abandon its allies in the region. Ah well, that was May. This is August and Kerry is trying to pretend that UN resolutions will suddenly prevent Iran from continuing to arm its shiite allies and proxies as it wages determined war against sunni Arab states and Israel. But, on the other hand, after assuring the world that Iran will be restrained by UN resolutions from supplying arms to Middle East terrorists, Kerry suggested that the UN resolurions are irrelevant because much of the monitoring work could be done by the United States and its allies on their own. Kerry said : "We're not dependent on the UN to do that and I think Israel and others are much happier that we're not....We will depend on our own intel community, on our own military on our own information, we will work with Israel, we will work with others." But, again John Kerry seems to have forgotten that he negotiated a deal that keeps American inspectors out of Iran. Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice confirmed it in a TV interview in July and added : “There are not going to be independent American inspectors separate from the IAEA” in Iran. And in the most encompassing of position statemrnts on the matter, last month Iran's senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqch made clear that Teheran has no intention of complying with the arms embargo and missile sanctions. "Whenever it’s needed to send arms to our allies in the region, we will do so," he said. "We are not ashamed of it." No wonder John Kerry thinks the Iran nuclear agreement is a good deal -- he knows very little about it.