Posted on 07/22/2015 5:29:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Briefing the Iranian parliament Tuesday on the nuclear agreement reached with the U.S. and five other nations, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Iran had achieved its “main objectives” in the negotiations—“maintaining Iran’s dignity and might, establishing the nuclear program, [uranium] enrichment and retaining the heavy-water reactor.”
The negotiators on the other side of the table, meanwhile, essentially achieved very little, he implied. Their main goal was to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but Iran had no intention from doing so in the first place, he said, pointing to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s purported “fatwa” outlawing them.
Zarif also took a swipe at Israel, the most outspoken critic of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal.
“The much-hated Zionist regime has never been this much isolated among its allies,” the Tehran Times quoted him as saying. …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Of what strategic use is the missile with a conventional warhead?
Iran’s military is now free to develop breakout as did the Norks and they can now just buy Russian boosters. Good job, Barry!
May Iran’s first strike land on his head.
I doubt they'd have conventional warheads though. I have zero illusions about Iran stopping their nuclear weapons program. This "deal" (aka capitulation) is bad because it lets Iran proceed full speed ahead on several engineering fronts. Not only doesn't it stop or even slow this progress - it is going to fuel it with billions of $ in unfrozen assets and trade profits.
Consider: the Iranians will continue to learn how to enrich uranium with the full blessing of bammy's team. Sure, only to something like 2% but they will be learning/developing tools and techniques. These can probably (I'm no nuclear engineer/physicist) be applied as lessons-learned when it is time to enrich to weapons-grade levels. Once you've developed those better processes and centrifuges "for medical purposes" it is probably just a matter of letting the process/centrifuge run longer to enrich past a few percent and on towards weapons grade...
Consider: the Iranians will be able to continue working on the rest of the nuclear weapon. This is the tough engineering problem of detonation, implosion, etc. whichever method they choose to pursue. Ok, this will have to be done in secret 'cause it flies in the face of their "peaceful" nuclear mantra. However, I as understand it, so-called "military" sites are not open for arbitrary inspections, and Iran itself sits on the council that resolves disputes over inspection requests for "military" sites. No-doubt able to delay enough to (re)move any incriminating gear. The kinds of tools and gear needed to design/build/test this portion of the weapon are far easier to hide and move around than thousands of centrifuges. Could probably put all the incriminating gear in a couple of semi trucks and run it off base ahead of any inspection.
Iran will continue developing missile technology with the full tacit approval of bammy's team.
There are other unconventional warheads that are perhaps easier to develop. For example chemical, biological, or even just "dirty bombs" - all of limited military use. However, extremely useful as terror tools/threats.
To summarize, the deal stinks for us, Israel, and Iran's neighbors. It stinks because it does not in any way stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. It may refocus their development efforts towards the rest of the engineering problem while fuel enrichment takes a back seat. (but also does not stop progressing) It gives their missile programs tacit approval and billions in funding. It gives their terror export business billions in funding. There is virtually no down-side to this for the Iranians. None.
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