Rubio on wrong side of Iran deal
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio knows it’s not going to happen. He knows Iran is not going to recognize Israel as part of the agreement it’s negotiating to forego nuclear weapons in return for sanctions relief.
But because he’s running for president, trying to sound strong for Jewish voters and standing against anything advanced by President Obama, our freshman senator did his best to fight for amendments that, in the end, could have hurt Israel.
Fortunately, Rubio’s Senate colleagues rejected his many “poison pill” amendments Thursday and passed a bill that would give Congress a simple up-or-down vote on the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, which includes lifting the sanctions that are crippling its economy.
Without question, we all want Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist. It’s longstanding U.S. policy that the world’s nations recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state.
But the White House says Iran is two to three months away from acquiring enough material for a nuclear device. So right now, Job One is to keep Iran from completing that process and creating a weapon that could annihilate our ally from the face of the earth.
The negotiated framework for a nuclear deal has been a year and a half in the making. It does not cover the waterfront of our grievances with Iran, including terrorism, regional disputes, human rights, the detention of journalists, and yes, Iran’s long-held position against Israel’s right to exist.
The deal focuses solely and urgently on defusing Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear bomb.
The 15-year deal would have Iran reduce by two-thirds the number of centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium, and only allow it to enrich uranium to the grade needed for power plants, not weapons. It would prohibit Tehran from building any new enrichment facilities and allow unfettered inspections at existing facilities, and at times military bases, too. And while Iraq could continue the research and development of uranium enrichment, the backout time needed to develop weapons-grade material would extend to one year, rather than the two to three months at which it now stands.
In return, sanctions would be lifted that have frozen Iran’s foreign bank accounts and access to capital, and kept countries from buying its oil.
Some have argued that America should walk away from this deal and squeeze harder until Iran completely dismantles its nuclear architecture and stops any uranium enrichment on its soil.
But at a recent briefing for editorial writers at the State Department, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes persuasively argued that it’s a risky bet not to act now, especially since existing sanctions haven’t stopped Iran’s march toward a nuclear weapon.
“Everything we know about them suggests they’re not likely to capitulate under pressure,” Rhodes said. “This is a country founded on resistance. They fought a war with Iraq for eight years, in which a million Iranians died and they suffered a trillion dollars in economic damages. They didn’t surrender then. So we think it’s more likely, if we try to sanction them into complete submission, they would take the nuclear course, rather than capitulate.”
Plus, we’re not the only country involved in these negotiations. Also at the table are Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
“The sanctions depend on international cooperation. The other countries in the sanctions regime that have gone along with not purchasing Iranian oil or significantly reducing their purchase, did so because they wanted to reach this deal,” Rhodes said. “Some of our allies don’t love these sanctions. They’re doing this to get a deal done. If we walk away, the sanctions regime could come apart. They could say, ‘We signed up to get this deal, now you’re saying it’s not good enough. ... We’re not going to go along with that.’ ’’
Thursday’s vote is not the final word. The House is expected to vote next week. Plus, the framework still must be turned into a done deal.
No one can predict how this will all play out. Hopefully, Iran, whose people are sick of the sanctions and want greater ties with the rest of the world, will stay out of the penalty box. But it also has hard-liners who want to eliminate Israel and will likely seek to sabotage the deal. Just last fall, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni took to Twitter to call for the destruction of “the fake Zionist regime.”
Never-ending vigilance will be critical to this deal’s success.
While nothing is perfect, we were disappointed to see Rubio try to scuttle the deal with political gamesmanship.
As Rhodes said, “this deal is a far better choice than a military confrontation or a world in which Iran exists as a nuclear weapon state.” Amen to that. Let’s not let perfection be the enemy of the good.
Let us take what we can today, keep a vigilant eye and live to fight another day.