World peace trumps a phony foreign policy triumph

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Some have predicted that Secretary of State John Kerry will win a Nobel Peace Prize for his success in negotiating a deal with Iran.

Let’s not jump the gun. As The Wall Street Journal wrote in its April 3 editorial, “The fundamental question posed by President Obama’s Iran diplomacy has always been whether it can prevent a nuclear-armed Middle East — in Iran as well as Turkey and the Sunni Arab states.”

This deal was intended to stop Iran from creating and using nuclear weapons, and is critical to world peace and a world free from nuclear weapons.

Right now, the “deal” isn’t a deal; it’s a very broad framework, or an understanding, among Iran and six other powers. We still don’t know all of the details — there are many gray areas — and there’s still much negotiating to be done.

I believe the president was so anxious to reach a deal by his self-imposed March 31 deadline that he forced through this deal as if to say, “Here, look, I did it.” (Almost. The deal was agreed to on April 2). Obama and his administration shouldn’t be so desperate for a foreign policy legacy that they hastily put together a bad nuclear deal, one that leaves us in a perilous and vulnerable position.

This agreement needs to be thoroughly evaluated and put through every litmus test possible by Congress before it is signed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the president will allow much debate. As the Journal pointed out, “He will go first to the U.N. for approval, and then he will dare Congress to disagree. So much for welcoming debate.”

Yet in his speech in the Rose Garden following the signing of the deal, Obama said, “The issues at stake here are bigger than politics. These are matters of war and peace.”

He shouldn’t try to go it alone! He needs Congress, and must work with its members, sell the deal to them, in order to persuade them not to pass legislation that would authorize new sanctions on Iran. Kerry has stated that new sanctions would kill the deal.

We had to give a lot to get this deal, and at what cost? Kerry insists that the Islamic republic will no longer be able to hide nuclear facilities, and we will have unfettered access to them for inspections. If this is violated, sanctions return.

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