Though a final deal won’t be sealed until later this year, the framework agreement announced in Lausanne, Switzerland on Thursday between Iran and the P5+1 nations is having reverberations across the world—offering hope of rapprochement, peace, and better days ahead for those who support it and heckles and frowns from those who appear to think that a continued stalemate and endless sanctions, or possibly war, are the better path.
As Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, writes in an op-ed at The National Interest on Friday morning: “Peace won. War lost. It’s as simple as that.”
“Make no mistake,” Parsie continued, “the framework agreement that was announced yesterday is nothing short of historic. A cycle of escalation has been broken – for the first time, Iran’s nuclear program will roll back, as will the sanctions Iran has been subjected too.”
As regular Iranians were reportedly celebrating in the streets and in their homes and President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and the foreign ministers of the other nations were receiving widespread praise for the diplomatic accomplishment, hawkish forces were quickly—and unsurprisingly—making public their objections to the deal.
In a phone call with Obama following the announcement of the agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let it be known he continues to be “vehemently opposed” to any deal with Iran.
“This deal would legitimize Iran’s nuclear program, bolster Iran’s economy and increase Iran’s aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond,” Netanyahu said later in a statement. “It would increase the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region and the risks of a horrific war.” Notably, Israel (though it remains undeclared) is the only country in the Middle East thought to have a nuclear weapons arsenal.
Meanwhile, before the ink was dry on the framework agreement (read the text of the document here), Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, said the panel will vote on a measure he has proposed which would stipulate congressional approval of any deal with Iran over its nuclear program. Such a move has long been seen as a way to sabotage the diplomatic effort, but Corker insisted he would call for a vote as soon as members return from Easter recess.
Called the ‘The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015,’ the legislation would require any final agreement with Iran to be submitted to Congress for a 60-day review period before congressionally-mandated sanctions on Iran could be waived or suspended by the president.
Corker’s legislation has support not only from his Republican colleagues, but also from a powerful array of hawkish Democrats, including: Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Sen. Joe Donnelly (D- Indiana), Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Col.), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).
While foreign policy experts from around the world praised the deal—with many expressing surprise by just how much Iran was willing to offer in exchange for sanctions relief and an end to economic isolation—Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the deal that would provide a reduction of Iran’s nuclear capacity and strict monitoring of its atomic activities an “alarming” development.
However, according to Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine and UN weapons inspector, the predictable opposition to the deal with Tehran is coming from the very same people who led the U.S. people into war with Iraq in 2003.
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