As Iran’s tyrants developed their nuclear program, they argued assiduously that it was not intended to intimidate neighboring countries.
To this day, Tehran’s English-language diplomatic websites insist the “Iranian nuclear program is completely peaceful and has always been carrying out [sic] under supervision of the [International Atomic Energy Agency]. This program does not pose any threat to any country due to its peaceful nature. As the Great Leader and other high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have repeatedly announced, WMDs including nuclear weapons do not have any place in Iran’s defense doctrine.”
This assertion nudged President Obama into making his deal with Iran lifting economic sanctions and offering nuclear cooperation, in exchange for assurances that the revolutionary theocracy will not develop nuclear weapons.
The deal enjoyed support from fewer than half the members of the Senate. Both Republicans and Democrats feared that Iran was negotiating in bad faith and would pocket American concessions to get time and money to develop the bomb. It remains a state sponsor of terrorism, funding paramilitary groups from Yemen to Syria.
Since Obama struck the deal, Iran has gone out of its way to confirm fears that it’s untrustworthy. In October, it tested a ballistic missile that could reach Saudi Arabia and Israel, Iran’s principal enemies respectively in the region and in eternity.
This Tuesday, Iran’s state media announced that the government had tested a long-range ballistic missile, apparently in violation of United Nations resolutions.
Ballistic missiles do not have peaceful applications. They do not deliver foreign aid. They do not generate electricity. Their payloads are massively lethal. They have only two purposes, which are to make war on other countries and to substantiate threats against them.
Obama’s officials are now scrambling, with other UN countries, to concoct an investigation and determine what new sanctions, if any, can be imposed in retaliation for Iran’s belligerency. But the missile test reveals — no further revelation was needed — a government that acts and negotiates in bad faith as a matter of routine.
This reality nukes Obama’s thinking. It is too late to fix that, and Middle East tensions are rising as Iran casts a longer and darker shadow over the region.
Because of Obama’s irresponsible stroke of wishful diplomacy, conducted unilaterally and without consultation, collaboration or approval from the Congress, neither this president nor the next one will be able to reverse what has been wrought. The toothpaste is out of the tube.
