Obama Now Responsible for Iran's Nuclear-enhanced Terrorism

On Sunday evening, a Swiss plane carrying three freed Americans landed in Geneva from Teheran with three Americans, part of a US-Iran prisoner swap -- Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post Teheran bureau chief, Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho, and Amir Hekmati, a former Marine from Flint, Michigan. Another freed American, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, didn't leave Teheran and there's no news about why he stayed in Iran. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday. Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, taken hostage in Iran in 2007, and oil executive Siamak Namazi were not among the Americans released. Switzerland has provided diplomatic liaison for the US in Iran since the 1979 US Embassy storming and hostage taking. ~~~~~ Lifting nuclear sanctions was the result of the very dangerous Iran nuclear deal and its IAEA certification on Saturday : "Iran has carried out all measures required...to enable Implementation Day to occur," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. ~~~~~ Secretary of State Kerry said he and President Obama negotiated the prisoner/hostage swap separately from the nuclear deal. As Donald Trump would say, "Whatever." But, when American political hostages are freed, we rejoice. That Obama and Kerry violated two longstanding US diplomatic rules -- never negotiate with terrorists and never pay a ransom -- can't be a surprise because most American rules of diplomacy have already been broken under Obama. But, for the hostages : "welcome home." ~~~~~ World media says the lifting of sanctions and the prisoner/hostage deal considerably reduce the hostility between Iran and the US that has shaped the Middle East since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. That may be, but it is exactly this result that dismays and worries Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East - except Iran's pawns, Iraq and Syria. Hundreds of billions of dollars of Iranian assets will now be unfrozen and global companies will rush into an Iran market starved for everything from cars and banking access to airplane parts. The EU has also begun lifting sanctions and Iran's transport minister has already announced plans to buy 114 civil aircraft from EU aircraft maker Airbus. Iran's GNP will rise by 5.8% this year because of the sanctions' end. That means more money and prestige for shiite Iran as it continues to lead and finance terrorism and sectarian conflict in the Middle East : in the Syrian civil war where its allies are fighting rebels to save al-Assad, in Yemen as it tries to weaken Saudi Arabia, and in support for Hezbollah and Hamas in efforts to destroy Israel. ~~~~~ Dear readers, President Rouhani hails the nuclear deal as a "golden page" in Iran's history, but other Iranian leaders are knee-deep in self-praise for negotiating a deal that is better for Iran than for the world powers across the table. Ignore Obama's foolish brag that Iran will not "get its hands" on a nuclear weapon. Of course it will. Iran's win over Obama unleashes a domestic power fight among Iran's elites. Rouhani doesn't have the political support of Khamenei at home that he had in the nuclear negotiation. If Khamenei now prefers a less confrontational foreign policy, restoring full ties with the American "Great Satan" is out of the question, officials say. Rouhani, a pragmatist whose 2013 election made possible the thaw in relations with the world, owes his success to one man : Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Hardliners don't like Rouhani's growing influence and popularity and seek to limit his power in Iran where they oppose all political liberalization. A senior official said : "People know that Rouhani's policy ended Iran's isolation and their economic hardship. He is their hero." But, Khamenei and hardliners viciously hold onto power. Without Khamenei's okay, Rouhani cannot moderate Iran's radical islamic politics, even if he wants to. Iran may face another 2009-type bloodbath of death, torture and rape. Obama has brought Iran's terrorist thugs back onto the world stage, but will he also pay for bomb shelters?