Iran deal is no sweetheart

Re: The Iran Swindle, John Robson, July 17. If Canada was the terrorist nation Iran is today, the Iran “deal” would look very different. For one thing, wouldn’t the U.S. insist Canada stop all terrorist activity immediately? Wouldn’t public statements advocating the death and destruction of the U.S. and all Americans be seen as a violation of any agreement?

Iran may abide by this arrangement, but if experience is any guide, it will not. It’s no wonder Israel, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the direct line of fire of Iran’s terrorist activities are angry about this arrangement. Is this the best that the P5+1 could do, or did it just fulfil its own personal political ends? While I am no fan of U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy initiatives, I support his much-denigrated nuclear deal with Iran for several reasons. While it does not guarantee Iran will never get nuclear weapons, it materially defers that possible eventuality. Iran’s clerical leaders and Revolutionary Guard are brutal, untrustworthy and anti-western, but the Iranian people were, and can again become, a wonderful nation.

The lifting of sanctions will help them. Obama’s actions are a first step in building bridges with and de-demonizing the Shiites, who with the Kurds are the principal opponents of the Sunni Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant, something that cannot be said of U.S.-favoured Sunni Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The deal also prevents the break up of the shaky anti-Iranian sanction group many of whom were eager to jump ship. The deal will not cause the rest of the Middle East to go nuclear. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni nations may already have been clandestinely so armed by Pakistan, a much more dangerous country than Iran. Finally, Iran has been kept out of the nuclear club by the certainty of massive retaliation if it got the bomb.

Contrary to what Obama has said, the deal was not about diplomacy versus military action. The latter option remains on the table with the in-country nuclear inspectors providing the best means to