IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL ISN’T A BAD DEAL AFTER ALL; IT’S NO DEAL

Editorial

Investor’s Business Daily
November 25, 2015

Nuclear Charade: The Obama administration admits to Congress that its nuclear pact with Iran has not been signed by the Iranian regime and has no legal force. Obama's "tough diplomacy" is puff diplomacy.

The White House's latest updated "Strategy for American Innovation" left one innovation out: diplomatic pacts with other countries that don't have to be signed.

Maybe President Obama will say that it saves the taxpayers money, since it eliminates signing ceremonies in lavish locales.

Going back to when, as a candidate, he expressed a willingness to talk directly with Iran, then through months of negotiations on its nuclear program, Obama never said that at the end of it all the Iranians might never bother to sign the deal that he promises will prevent the terror state from becoming nuclear-armed.

Or that the lack of Iran's signature was OK.

But that is exactly what Obama's State Department now says, in a Nov. 19 written response to a letter to Secretary John Kerry from Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., obtained by National Review's Joel Gehrke.

"The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document," according to Julia Frifield, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs.

Well, what is it, then? Something innovative, no doubt. According to the State Department, it doesn't matter "whether it is legally binding or signed."

What matters are "the extensive verification measures we have put in place" — like letting Tehran inspect its nuclear facilities — and "Iran's understanding that we have the capacity to reimpose — and ramp up — our sanctions if Iran does not meet its commitments."

But sanctions will never be reimposed, because that would expose the deal as not being worth the paper it's signed on — or, rather, isn't signed on. Reinstating sanctions would kill the deal and expose Obama's and Kerry's efforts as a monumental failure.

Moreover, our socialist friends in Europe who joined in approving it will never reimpose sanctions either, preferring to Give Peace a Chance.

Earlier this year, the White House website answered the question, "Will companies that sign contracts with Iran be able to continue that business even if Iran violates the JCPOA and snapback occurs because of a grandfather clause?" The answer was, "No. There is no grandfather clause in the JCPOA ... (and) no exemptions from our sanctions for long-term contracts."

But if the deal is not signed, what does it matter what clause is there? A nonsigned contract is no contract, which our law "professor" president presumably was taught in his high school business law class.

Iran knows this — which is exactly why it hasn't signed. "Moderate" President Hassan Rouhani in August opposed parliamentary approval because "it will create an obligation for the government. It will mean the president, who has not signed it so far, will have to sign it," he said, asking, "Why should we place an unnecessary legal restriction on the Iranian people?"

The Iran nuclear agreement isn't "a bad deal," after all. It's no deal.