Iran Agrees To Limitations On Nuclear Program

WaPo: “Iran, World Powers Reach Historic Nuclear Deal.” The Washington Post reported that Iran agreed to a deal brokered by the United States and five other world powers “that freezes key parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions”:

The deal, intended as a first step toward a more comprehensive nuclear pact to be completed in six months, freezes or reverses progress at all of Iran's major nuclear facilities, according to Western officials familiar with the details. It halts the installation of new centrifuges used to enrich uranium and caps the amount and type of enriched uranium that Iran is allowed to produce.

Iran also agreed to halt work on key components of a heavy-water reactor that could someday provide Iran with a source of plutonium. In addition, Iran accepted a dramatic increase in oversight, including daily monitoring by international nuclear inspectors, the officials said.

The concessions not only halt Iran's nuclear advances but also make it virtually impossible for Tehran to build a nuclear weapon without being detected, the officials said. In return, Iran will receive modest relief of trade sanctions and access to some of its frozen currency accounts overseas, concessions said to be valued at less than $7 billion over the six-month term of the deal. The sanctions would be reinstated if Iran violates the agreement's terms. [Washington Post, 11/24/13]

Right-Wing Media Respond With Accusations Of Surrender, Nazi Comparisons

John Bolton: “This Is Abject Surrender By The United States” In a November 24 Weekly Standard blog, Fox News contributor and former UN Ambassador John Bolton wrote that “this interim agreement is badly skewed from America's perspective” and is “abject surrender by the United States”:

This interim agreement is badly skewed from America's perspective.  Iran retains its full capacity to enrich uranium, thus abandoning a decade of Western insistence and Security Council resolutions that Iran stop all uranium-enrichment activities. Allowing Iran to continue enriching, and despite modest (indeed, utterly inadequate) measures to prevent it from increasing its enriched-uranium stockpiles and its overall nuclear infrastructure, lays the predicate for Iran fully enjoying its “right” to enrichment in any “final” agreement.  Indeed, the interim agreement itself acknowledges that a “comprehensive solution” will “involve a mutually defined enrichment program.”  This is not, as the Obama administration leaked before the deal became public, a “compromise” on Iran's claimed “right” to enrichment. This is abject surrender by the United States. [The Weekly Standard, 11/24/13]

Jennifer Rubin: U.S. Is “Paying Iran $5 Billion to $10 Billion, Which It Can Use To Continue Enriching And Of Course Sponsoring Terrorists.” In a November 24 post on the Washington Post's Right Turn blog, Jennifer Rubin argued that the Iranian deal meant Iranian deal meant the United States is “in essence paying Iran $5 billion to $10 billion, which it can use to continue enriching and of course sponsoring terrorists”:

We are in essence paying Iran $5 billion to $10 billion, which it can use to continue enriching and of course sponsoring terrorists. The communist adage that capitalists would sell them the rope to hang the capitalist is turned on its head; we are now paying our enemies to manufacture the rope. [Washington Post, 11/24/13]

Mark Levin: “Obama's Destruction Spreads Worldwide: We Surrender To Iran.” On his Facebook page, conservative radio host Mark Levin reacted to the deal by writing “Obama's destruction spreads worldwide: we surrender to Iran”:

[Facebook, 11/24/13]

Ben Shapiro: Deal With Iran Is “Worse Than Munich.” Breitbart's Ben Shapiro denounced the Iran nuclear deal in a post titled “Worse Than Munich,” as “the most ignominious moment in western foreign policy in decades,” and compared it to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's 1938 appeasement of Hitler in Munich:

President Obama's cowardly deal with the Iranian regime - a regime dedicated to the destruction of Israel, pursuing nuclear weapons in violation of multiple United Nations resolutions, and the persecution of Christians - marks the most ignominious moment in western foreign policy in decades. The easy comparison is to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler in Munich in 1938, when he signed allowed Hitler to consolidate his gains in the Sudetenland on the bare promise of no further aggression in Europe. [Breitbart.com, 11/24/13]

George Will: U.S. Policy Will Be Containment “Because They're Going To Get The Bomb.” On the November 24 edition of Fox News Sunday, Fox News contributor George Will said that the Iran deal will result in the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East:

Four things remain clear: first, there will be no US attack on our negotiating partner, the Iranians. That's now off the table. That's probably a good thing, but now formally off the table. Second, the president said he's not going to contain a nuclear Iran. I think that will be our policy, containing them, because they're going to get the bomb. Third, the big question is what will Israel, abetted by Saudi Arabia, which is terrified of Iran, do at this point. And fourth, will the final reaction be the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East as the Saudis seek their own arsenal? [Fox News Sunday, 11/24/13]

Erick Erickson: “Congratulation To Iran On Its Successful Acquisition Of The Bomb.” On his Twitter account, Fox News contributor Erick Erickson responded to the deal by writing “Congratulation[s] to Iran on its successful acquisition of the bomb”:

[Twitter, 11/24/13]

Daniel Pipes: Iran Deal Is A “Disaster,” Valid To Compare To “Neville Chamberlain In Munich in 1938.” In a post on National Review Online, Daniel Pipes wrote that the Iran deal “will be remembered along with Munich,” calling it a policy “disaster” for the Obama administration::

This wretched deal offers one of those rare occasions when comparison with Neville Chamberlain in Munich in 1938 is valid. An overeager Western government, blind to the evil cunning of the regime it so much wants to work with, appeases it with concessions that will come back to haunt it. Geneva and Nov. 24 will be remembered along with Munich and Sept. 29.

Barack Obama has made many foreign-policy errors in the past five years, but this is the first to rank as a disaster. Along with the health-care law, it is one of his worst-ever steps. John Kerry is a too-eager puppy looking for a deal at any price. [National Review Online, 11/24/13]