Washington Times - A Compliant But Dangerous Iran

Op-Ed

By Pat Meehan

Last Friday marked the second anniversary of an agreement on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran nuclear deal. I was a critic of the deal at the time, and I continue to be alarmed by Iran's aggression on the world stage.

The Trump administration on Monday certified, as required by Congress, that Iran is in technical compliance with the terms of the deal. Many Democrats and some in the news media will no doubt trumpet this as a validation of the deal and a rebuke of its critics -- President Trump included.

But the concern of those of us who opposed the deal was never that the regime would fail to comply. Our concern rests in the deal's fundamental flaws. The agreement's scope is so narrow and its mandates so diluted that Iranian compliance places no real burden on the regime.

So instead of ending Iran's nuclear program, the mullahs have simply reduced it in scope. Tehran's right to enrich uranium is protected and it preserves enough centrifuges to construct a nuclear weapon. Demands by the United States for "anytime, anywhere" inspections were foolishly abandoned. And to seal the deal, in the dead of night, the Obama administration delivered $1.7 billion in cash as a ransom payment to the Iranian regime.

The JCPOA essentially provides Tehran the time it needs to hone and perfect its delivery mechanism for a nuclear weapon. And we all know where such a weapon will be aimed once the regime perfects that capability -- first at Israel, then at the United States. It was the inevitable result of a president watching the clock tick down on the closing days of his presidency, desperate to reach a legacy-defining deal at any cost.
But the damaging legacy of the Iran deal is felt most acutely today because of what was left off the table entirely. Iran continues to develop advanced ballistic missiles. It supports rebels in Yemen and Bashar Assad in Syria, giving the regime a crucial lifeline of men and materiel responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents. It remains the principal state sponsor of terrorism, backing groups like Hezbollah and even the Sunni terrorist group Hamas. To add insult to injury, Iran's funding of terrorism has continued unabated while it still owes Americans billions of dollars for attacks on our citizens.

Free of sanctions, Iranian oil is flowing out and foreign currency is flowing in. The Iranian military is ramping up the purchase of sophisticated air defense systems and other equipment from Russia. There are reports from German intelligence that Iran has been using its cash influx to buy nuclear and missile technology in defiance of sanctions and U.N. resolutions. The Iran deal has given the mullahs' regime what it needed most -- cash, time and breathing room.

America, on the other hand, finds itself stuck in a deal too weak to be effective but strong enough to tie our own hands in dealings with Tehran. The crippling sanctions so effective in bringing the Iranians to the table in the first place are no longer a tool at our disposal so long as Iran remains in "technical" compliance with the deal.

A round of narrower sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after ballistic missile tests in February was a turning point: It showed that no longer would a U.S. government bend over backward to accommodate the regime and preserve the deal. Congress is also working on passing a sanctions bill targeting Iran's ballistic missile development, support for terrorism, weapons transfers and human rights violations. These are encouraging steps, but more must be done. We cannot continue the previous administration's doctrine of acquiescence to a regime that uses its influence to threaten our national security, support terrorism and oppress its own citizens.

I hope that President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson use their considerable authority to thoroughly investigate claims that Iran is not compliant with the nuclear deal. I also encourage the administration to examine Iran's hostile actions in other arenas and develop a coherent strategy that rebukes Iran's aggression and truly puts America first.

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