Pulling out trumps nuke deal apologists

Of all the arguments for the Trump administration to honour the nuclear deal with Iran, none was more risible than the claim that we gave our word as a country to keep it. ‘‘Our’’? The Obama administration refused to submit the deal to Congress as a treaty, knowing it would never get two-thirds of the Senate to go along. Just 21 per cent of Americans approved of the deal at the time it went through, against 49 per cent who did not, according to a Pew poll. The agreement ‘‘passed’’ on the strength of a 42-vote Democratic filibuster, against bipartisan, majority opposition. Build on political sand; get washed away by the next electoral wave. Such was the fate of the illjudged and ill-founded deal, which Donald Trump killed on Tuesday by refusing to again waive sanctions on the Islamic Republic. He was absolutely right to do so – assuming, that is, serious thought has been given to what comes next.

The easing of sanctions gave Tehran additional financial means with which to fund its depredations in Syria and its militant proxies in Yemen, Lebanon and elsewhere. Apologists for the deal answer that the price is worth paying because Iran has put on hold much of its production of nuclear fuel.

Yet even now Iran is under looser nuclear strictures than South Korea, and would have been allowed to enrich as much material as it liked once the deal expired. That’s nuts.