Iran has a uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, a bunkered facility that Iran had built years ago in violation of its then international agreements and UN resolutions. It was only discovered in 2009, after it had been in operation for years.

The present nuclear weapons deal being “negotiated” with Iran would allow enrichment to continue at Fordo, under…inspection…, but with only several hundred centrifuges spinning.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are objecting to this “deal” coming out of Lausanne, Switzerland, insisting that we’re giving away too much to Iran’s weapons program and getting too little in return, especially in the way of assurances—real block, not just “rules” and “agreements” and “protocols”—that the remaining facilities won’t, in fact, be turned to production of highly enriched uranium and the fission bombs that can be built from it.

Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, though, thinks this is a good deal.

I think Senator Graham and Senator Menendez [leaders of the objections in the Senate] need to take a step back and put this development in a broader context. The key to Fordo is that we do not want this to be a facility with industrial-scale uranium enrichment and this report suggests they are moving in that direction.

And therein lies a bright, clear illustration of the Left’s lack of understanding of what’s happening. The key to Fordo is that it should not exist at all: its construction and operation are a demonstration that Iran cannot be trusted with any deal regarding its nuclear enrichment “program.”

Any such deal must include shutting down Iranian centrifuges—every single one of them—confiscating all uranium enriched above 5% (above that is not needed for power generating nuclear reactors), and requiring Iran to import its nuclear reactor fuel (as so many other nuclear power generating nations around the world do). Any such deal must have stern verification measures in place, also: an international inspecting presence permanently in place, able to go where it will, able to go there on no notice at all, and able to confiscate the produce of any violation. Severe sanctions to punish such violations also must be in place and triggered automatically on discovery of violation.

Full stop.

President Barack Obama has yet to meet with the new head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and won’t see Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this week, even though he is in Washington for three days. Stoltenberg’s office requested a meeting with Obama well in advance of the visit, but never heard anything from the White House….

Stoltenberg has met with most of the other NATO member heads of state, including Canada’s Prime Minister on the same trip that brought him to DC to be snubbed by our President.

It’s not like Obama was too busy to meet with the NATO head; although, Obama doesn’t have any golf scheduled, either, so….

In the end, this is a major step toward giving Russian President Vladimir Putin something of what he wants: the irrelevance, if not the outright dissolution, of NATO.

The Junior Varsity that is Daesh is actively training with two other junior varsity teams at camps in Mauritania, nation of the western Sahel region of Africa. Those other two scrub teams are al Qaeda and Boko Haram.

At least 80 trainees, recruits from the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe, including France, are known to be training at the camps[.]

Hmm….

In parallel,

US counterterrorism strategy in Yemen has all but collapsed as the country descends into chaos, according to US and Yemeni officials.

Operations against militants have been scaled back dramatically amid the fall of the American-backed government and the evacuation of US personnel. What had been consistent pressure on Yemen’s dangerous Al Qaeda affiliate has been relieved, the officials say, and a safe haven exists for the development of an offshoot of the Islamic State group.

Al Qaeda is on the run, all right.

It’s too bad our President, the nominal leader of the free world, isn’t even any good at trash talking.