The root corruption of the nuclear deal that the Obama administration reached with Iran in July 2015 was not only that Iran got to keep its nuclear facilities, but that then-president Barack Obama didn’t insist on truly intrusive international supervision of what goes on deep inside them.
After all, Iran had clandestinely crossed every red line set by the West over 20 years – putting nuclear plants online, building heavy water facilities, refining uranium, working on explosive triggers and warheads, and generally breaching all its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty – and Iran got away with it.
It lied, formally and repeatedly, to the international community about its nuclear efforts.
So “anywhere, anytime” international inspections of Iran’s secret-most nuclear and military facilities were the minimum prerequisite for a verifiable deal. Obama said so himself, but then reneged on this.
Under the terms of the P5+1 agreement with the Ayatollahs (known as the JCPOA), UN inspectors were given the right only to “coordinate” their visits to suspect Iranian sites, “in consultation between Iran and the world powers.”
Worse still, Iran was given the right to deny and challenge UN requests to send inspectors to suspicious sites. In these cases, an arbitration board composed of Iran and the powers would decide on the issue. This allows Tehran time to cover up any sign of non-compliance with its commitments.
The sycophantic then-US secretary of state John Kerry called this “managed access,” which is a week-kneed euphemism for nowhere, no-time inspections.
Since then, of course, Iran has stymied access by international inspectors to military and nuclear sites, especially the Parchin military base, where Iran clearly was experimenting with nuclear weapon production.
NOW, THE HEAD of the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency is refusing to take at face value evidence presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about secret atomic archives and warehouses in Tehran.
