Iran’s Coming Windfall
For more than a decade, I have written many articles decrying the Western powers’ fecklessness in confronting Iran, the world’s greatest purveyor of terrorism, on its drive to obtain a nuclear weapons arsenal. I am not alone. Despite Israeli and other Middle Eastern countries’ complaints against successive American governments (excepting the previous administration), the Americans continue to “negotiate” with Iran. With its negotiating partners practically begging them, Iran will have a difficult time turning down an offer which costs them little but provides stupendous financial and military benefits.
Anyone paying attention knows that Iran negotiates circles around its interlocutors. The Iranians needn’t have much skill to accomplish that! Iran follows the same playbook time after time, lying through its teeth, procrastinating, taking “breaks,” while ceaselessly increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium. Contemptuously, Iran continues to foment terror on its own and via its proxies, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon, insisting that it will destroy the Big and Little Satans (the US and Israel respectively). Yet, the West insists on begging and bribing Iran: “Let’s make a deal.”
Unfortunately, nothing will stop the European powers’ greed for Iranian business, nor America’s haste to “deal with” Iran so that it can “concentrate” on Russia, and especially China. Not for a moment do these cynical nations, which accommodate many of Iran’s most egregious demands, consider the countries most threatened by Iran’s looming nuclear threat: Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates. The three Arab states see which way the fickle Western wind is blowing, kowtowing to Iran. They are ramping up cooperation with Iran, a non-Arab Middle Eastern power. This leaves Israel as the most likely bulwark against malign, nuclear-armed Iran.
Nobody gets excited about Israel’s reputed nuclear weapons. Other nations rely on Israel’s rectitude to constrain its formidable powers. But North Korea, a small, poor dictatorship inspires fear far beyond its small nuclear arsenal. How much more will a nuclear armed Iran throw its weight around when its current, overt terrorism already affects the entire Middle East, plus South America and Africa. Even without a nuclear bomb, Iran touts its ballistic missiles, capable of reaching NATO targets in Europe and placing satellites in orbit. Atomic weapons capability will be Iran’s force multiplier to fulfill its Islamist goal to place Iran at the head of a world Islamic Caliphate.
On August 24, 2022 Israeli journalist Ben Caspit wrote in al-Monitor, an America-based Middle Eastern news website: “The problem,” a senior Israeli military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “is that we reach the first sunset clause in 2025,” the point at which the deal authorizes Iran to move ahead to within two-three months of nuclear breakout time. “That means that in order to distance Iran by two months from a bomb, the West is going to shower it with billions of dollars. This is a disaster.”
Israeli experts know that once the sanctions on Iran are lifted and its bank accounts are unfrozen, Iran will have access to billions of dollars in the first year and as much as $1 trillion by 2030. Caspit: “The Iranian economy is about the size of the Israeli one. Such sums defy all imagination and will allow Iran to shower money on all the terrorist organizations in the Middle East [and beyond], while maintaining its nuclear capability and preparing for a breakout to a bomb. This is nothing short of complete madness,” the Israeli diplomatic source said. “We will have to deal with all of this on our own.”
So, for just a brief break in Iran’s momentum towards the bomb, the US is ready to release hundreds of billions of US dollars to the terror giant. What will Iran do with the money? Will it relieve some of the suffering of its 87 million citizens? Of course not. Iran is, “all guns, no butter.” The ruling elite care nothing about the citizenry except how to keep them under control. For that matter, neither do its proxies in Lebanon or Yemen. Lebanon, which was once a prosperous, French-influenced commercial and tourism success, is now an utterly failed state, subservient to Iran’s terrorist offshoot Hezbollah. Ironically, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s political leader, claims that Hezbollah is the defender of Lebanon, while actually being its ruination.
By some miracle, the US may wake up with clear eyes and realize what a mistake they are making by placating Iran. It it did, its fellow negotiators would probably follow. But it’s increasingly unlikely, despite the fact the billions of dollars that Iran receives will immediately be put to use, wreaking havoc around the world.
Negotiating partners like the United States, who offers Iran billions of US dollars, are a boon for Iran, which has continued developing nukes throughout three American presidencies. If push comes to shove, will Israel be up to the task of shutting Iran down? We will probably find out.