Tehran has announced that during the present six-month…deal…they’ll be testing a new generation of centrifuges that are capable of more efficiently and quickly spinning down uranium. And of course, there’s no better way to test this new generation than by ops testing them through spinning down…uranium. This during that just concluded arrangement wherein Iran agreed they would not spin down more uranium. Such a deal President Barack Obama has negotiated.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D, NJ) has the right of it:
If you’re talking about producing more advanced centrifuges that are only used to enrich uranium at a quicker rate…the only purposes of that and the only reason you won’t give us access to [a military research facility] is because you’re really not thinking about nuclear power for domestic energy—you’re thinking about nuclear power for nuclear weapons[.]
Forty-seven Senators are co-sponsoring legislation that would tighten sanctions on Iran further, should Iran fail to come to a permanent agreement or violate the current arrangement. Yet,
Obama argues that Congress could step in at any time to approve new sanctions if Iran violates the terms of the agreement. Further, he argues that legislation at this stage could imperil the hard-fought Geneva deal.
When has Obama ever successfully negotiated anything in the last five years? He doesn’t control the mullahs like he did Congress his first two years, so he can’t railroad his wants through with no negotiations at all. He’s negotiated no deal domestically or globally since. Why should his protestations here be taken seriously?