The ink on President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is hardly dry, yet the mullahs already make it plain they’ll take the $100 billion windfall and run.
Tehran is a thorn in its region’s side, and that was never going to change, with or without a deal. It funds paramilitary groups, terrorists and death squads. It has extended its influence far into Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
But on Sunday, the ayatollahs did something more brazen in the context of its deal with the western powers. It conducted a test of its new Imad missile, an act clearly forbidden under a 2010 United Nations resolution. This test was intended to make a statement to intimidate other regional powers, including the oil-rich Sunni Muslim nations to its south and Israel to its west.
Iran’s theocratic regime then followed up this missile test with a further round of saber-rattling. It broadcast on state television images of a massive underground missile facility. Brig-Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guard aerospace division, delivered a menacing commentary on the reasons Iran seems to be gearing up for war. He announced that Iran has several such facilities buried 500 meters underground, and that “if enemies make a mistake, missile bases will erupt like a volcano from the depth of earth.”
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He added that those keeping “options on the table,” the phrase used by Obama and others to describe military options if Iran violates the nuclear deal, should be aware of Iran’s options “under the table.”
This represents a strikingly intentional and direct attempt at intimidation, the sort that Russia and the Islamic State have recently brought back into fashion in other areas where American leadership has been absent.
“The Oct. 11 launch constitutes a clear violation” of UN Resolution 1929, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters on Thursday, adding, “It is a worrying message from Iran to the international community.”
That much is obvious, but the Obama administration has been much more circumspect. White House spokesman Josh Earnest would go so far as to say only that there were “strong indications” that Tehran had violated its obligations.
Unfortunately, Obama may now be more beholden to Iran than he is committed to upholding internationally imposed limits on its bad behavior. To admit Iranian wrongdoing at this point is to admit the foolishness of his desperate efforts to get the deal, including the many inappropriate concessions he made and the obvious requests, such as the release of American prisoners, that he failed to make.
As with Russia and the indirect military help it is now giving to the Islamic State in Syria, Obama has been slow to learn or accept that Iran is not his friend. And as with Russia, it may already be too late.
