Iran is not budging, so it’s time for Congress to act

State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki acknowledged Wednesday that, with regard to the Iran nuclear talks, “we don’t yet have an understanding of all the major issues, and we continue to look for Iran to make the decisions necessary to get to a comprehensive agreement.” This exchange followed:

QUESTION: But what you just outlined is almost exactly what was told to us at the end of the last meeting in UNGA, between the Secretary and Foreign Minister Zarif. It would seem that there’s a stalemate. Is that a correct assessment?
MS. PSAKI: No. I think we still don’t have an understanding of the major issues, so that’s what the purpose of the discussion is on. We expect there will be many more meetings, and certainly there will be meetings at the experts level, and those will continue. And we have – feel we have adequate time to work through these issues.

They really don’t “understand” all the issues or Iran is not budging on them? I suspect the latter. In particular, we know from a Reuters report that the International Atomic Energy Agency “suggested strongly that the Islamic Republic had still not fully implemented the steps it had agreed to carry out, answering questions about what the United Nations agency calls the ‘possible military dimensions’ of Tehran’s nuclear programme.”

Reuters recounts:

The IAEA has for years been trying to get to the bottom of Western intelligence reports suggesting that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear warhead. Iran has denounced the intelligence as fabricated, but has promised to work with the IAEA since last year when Hassan Rouhani, seen as a pragmatist, became president on a platform to overcome his country’s international isolation.

In other words, for years Iran has refused to let inspectors in, and even after the interim agreement and an unexplained explosion at the Parchin facility it thumbs its nose at the IAEA. It is bizarre that the Obama negotiators have given any sanctions relief, let alone extended the deal and afforded more relief. Even worse, John Kerry, Obama and Wendy Sherman, who stuck a deal with North Korea that allowed it to quietly go nuclear, imagine a deal in which Iran gets to keep thousands of centrifuges subject to inspection, which Iran has never allowed.

This borders on delusional. The lack of compliance should make clear that whatever fantasy Obama harbored for a grand reconciliation with Iran is not happening, not unless he gives Tehran everything it wants. That we should have allowed Iran this much running room to continue its illegal program suggests the dearth of realistic thinking inside the White House.

When Congress gets back, the deadline for the extension will likely have passed. Congress should pass the Menendez-Kirk sanctions, transfer “bunker-buster” bombs to Israel and consult with regional allies on joint security — in other words, turn up the heat on sanctions and make the threat of military action real. We have frittered away years in the hopeless quest for a deal with a regime that won’t give up its nukes unless its leaders are convinced the survival of the regime (and their lives) is at stake. Right now they think they are in no peril whatsoever and are getting a pass on other issues (e.g. support for terrorism) — and they are.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/10/09/iran-is-not-budging-so-its-time-for-congress-to-act/