Iran Deal Another Historic Mistake By Obama Administration (Video)

A deal with Iran that has America’s enemies pumping their fists in the air and Israel seeking other allies for support – it’s another historic first for this God-awful president.

The sucker’s deal our brilliant Sec of State deal brokered: We give the Iranians sanctions relief and Iran gets to retain its full capacity to enrich uranium as they defiantly continue their quest for a nuclear bomb. The Iranians, as you can imagine, are thrilled, and Obama’s left-wing sycophants are congratulating Kerry for his “enormous achievement.”

The leader of the country Iran vowed to wipe off the map, is decidedly not thrilled…

What was achieved last night in Geneva is not an historic agreement; it is an historic mistake

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) November 24, 2013

Iran Is Playing Obama, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told Bloomberg News. The Saudi royal often “floats trial balloons on behalf of the members of his family who rule his country, and they consider him free to make impolitic statements they believe but cannot publicly endorse”.

“There’s no confidence in the Obama administration doing the right thing with Iran,” he told me, with a directness that would make Benjamin Netanyahu blush. “We’re really concerned — Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East countries — about this.”

It is quite something for a Saudi royal to state baldly that his country is part of a tacit alliance with Israel, but Saudi leaders, like Israel’s leaders, are frantic with worry that an overeager Obama will accede to Iran’s desire to become a threshold state, one whose nuclear program is so advanced that it would only need several weeks to assemble a deliverable weapon. Alwaleed, like Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, believes that Iran, in its ongoing negotiations with the world’s major powers, will pocket whatever sanctions relief it gets without committing to ending its nuclear program. “Why are they offering relief?” he asked. “Keep the pressure on. Sanctions are what brought about the negotiations to begin with! Why not keep the pressure up?”

Obama, Alwaleed says, is a man who is in desperate political straits and needs a victory — any victory — to right his presidency. “Obama is in so much of a rush to have a deal with Iran,” he said. “He wants anything. He’s so wounded. It’s very scary. Look, the 2014 elections are going to begin. Within two months they’re going to start campaigning. Thirty-nine members of his own party in the House have already moved away from him on Obamacare. That’s scary for him.”

Alwaleed believes a stronger president would have the willpower to say no to a flawed deal with Iran. Like the Israelis, the Saudis believe a flawed deal is one in which Iran isn’t forced to put its nuclear program in reverse, by shuttering facilities and mothballing centrifuges. (Alwaleed is not a Saudi government official, but he often floats trial balloons on behalf of the members of his family who rule his country, and they consider him free to make impolitic statements they believe but cannot publicly endorse).

Israeli leaders indicated that they would be looking for allies elsewhere, via Haaretz:

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel would act independently of the deal reached with Iran, adding that all options remain on the table.

“We have to be serious enough to take responsibility for our fate,” he told Israel Radio. “As always, all options are on the table.”

Lieberman called the deal a victory for Iran’s religious leaders.

“Obviously when you look at the smiles of the Iranians over there in Geneva, you realize that this is the Iranians’ greatest victory, maybe since the Khomeini revolution, and it doesn’t really change the situation within Iran,” said Lieberman. Referring to Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he said “Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guard are the true rulers, not [Iranian President Hassan] Rohani.”

Lieberman also indicated that Israel would be seeking other allies than the U.S. and would have to start “taking responsibility regardless of the American stance.”

“We have no alternative other than the United States, but Israel must look into new directions in addition to the U.S.,” he said. “We must take responsibility regardless of the stance of the Americans, or of others. We must make our own independent decisions.”

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon denounced the agreement as an “excellent deal for Iran and a dangerous one for the world, neutralizing the sanctions instead of the centrifuges. The agreement does not dismantle even a single centrifuge or reactor, but is a critical blow to sanctions.”

Meanwhile in Iran:

The Iranian government stuck it to President Barack Obama today with government run television broadcasting a “Down with America” celebration during live coverage of the return of Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. The Iranian minister returned from Geneva after completing a deal on Iran’s nuclear program with the U.S. and leading world powers, according to a BBC reporter.

Ali Hamedani, Persian reporter for the BBC, posted on Twitter:

IRIB is covering Zarif’s arrival in Tehran with a montage of anti American pictures. Subtitle is down with America in Persian and English.

— Ali Hamedani (@BBCHamedani) November 24, 2013

Buzzfeed reports that the US was in secret talks with Iran for a year –

Israeli officials knew they were being kept in the dark as the U.S. conducted secret talks with Iran, and the knowledge that the White House was “going behind Israel’s back” was one of the key sources of tension between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, according to a senior Israeli minister and other Israeli officials.

“We did not know from the beginning, but we knew, we had intelligence that these meetings were happening,” said the Israeli minister, who spoke to BuzzFeed by phone from his Jerusalem office. He said that a “friend in the Gulf” shared intelligence with Israel that the meetings were taking place, and urged Israel to find out more. “I would like to say we knew the content of the talks, but we didn’t. What we knew was that the U.S. was choosing not to tell us about them and that was very worrying.”

In an oped in The Weekly Standard, John Bolton called the deal, “abject surrender.”

Undoubtedly, an Israeli strike during the interim deal would be greeted with outrage from all the expected circles. But that same outrage, or more, would also come further down the road. In short, measured against the expected reaction even in friendly capitals, there is never a “good” time for an Israeli strike, only bad and worse times. Accordingly, the Geneva deal does not change Israel’s strategic calculus even slightly, unless the Netanyahu government itself falls prey to the psychological warfare successfully waged so far by the ayatollahs. That we will know only as the days unfold.

Israel still must make the extremely difficult judgment whether it will stand by as Iran maneuvers effortlessly around a feckless and weak White House, bolstering its economic situation while still making progress on the nuclear front, perhaps less progress on some aspects of its nuclear work than before the deal, but more on others.

And what’s this? Kerry: Nuke deal doesn’t give Iran right to enrich; Iran: World recognized our right to enrich“

The ink isn’t even dry on the temporary Iran nuclear deal and it already has that distinct “passed it to find out what’s in it” scent.

Cruz weighs in: Iranian Nuclear Deal Correctly Identified as “Historic Mistake”

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released a statement that concurred with Netanyahu’s take.

“According to the interim agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program that was reached this weekend in Geneva, not one centrifuge will be destroyed. Not one pound of enriched uranium will leave Iran. Not one American unjustly detained in Iran’s notorious prisons will be released. But Iran will start to receive, in a matter of days, $7 billion in relief from international economics sanctions.

“All the smiling embraces between diplomats after the interim deal was signed notwithstanding, the Iranian regime remains a brutal and oppressive dictatorship that pursues nuclear weapons for the purpose of dominating the Middle East and threatening America and our allies, notably Israel. President Obama and Secretary Kerry should reconsider their policy of rapprochement with Iran that is dismaying to Jerusalem and encouraging to Tehran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted this agreement would be a ‘very, very bad deal’ and has now correctly identified it as an ‘historic mistake.’ Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted his satisfaction as the ‘breaking down the architecture for sanctions has begun.’ The administration has gotten it backwards and it is time to reverse course before any further damage is done.”

And via Twitchy, a compare and contrast:

First a real leader responds:

For years the intl community has demanded that Iran cease uranium enrichment. Now it consents to it, in direct contravention of UNSC res 3/5

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) November 24, 2013

And here’s the Naked Emperor: