October 22, 2015
Back when the Obama administration was insisting that a deal between Iran and six world powers, including the United States, over Iran’s nuclear capabilities was a good thing for peace and stability in the Middle East region and the world, critics of the agreement were condemned as shortsighted and cynical — enemies of peace.
Defenders of the agreement maintained it was the only path to peaceful coexistence and an eventual partnership with the regime in Tehran.
Some people really seemed to believe this.
As we know now, opponents of the deal in the Senate could not muster the votes to kill it in July and, because of its unusual terms as established by the administration, it was essentially ratified by default.
So, as scheduled, the agreement went into effect on Sunday.
So just how is Iran taking to this new spirit of cooperation that the deal was supposed to engender?
Well, let’s see.
Earlier this month, Iran defiantly test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead
That’s in direct violation of United Nations sanctions that have been in place for years.
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said she was “deeply concerned” by the breach. Not surprisingly, Tehran didn’t flinch.
Tehran’s brazen violation of standing international agreements seems to have set off a small frenzy among other Middle Eastern nations concerned about their own nuclear capability, or lack thereof.
Saudi Arabia now wants to build 16 nuclear reactors. And the United Arab Emirates says it no longer feels bound to restrain its own efforts to attain nukes.
That’s not even Tehran’s most blatant provocation.
Iran recently took the lead on the ground in the Russian-backed offensive to eradicate the opposition to the monstrous Assad in Syria.
According to The Washington Post, as Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces have supplied substantial air support, large numbers of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and forces from the Hezbollah in Lebanon have been joined by Iran’s terrorist Quds fighting force in a massive assault to recapture Aleppo and other strategic parts of that civil-war-ravaged country.
This is hardly the peace-making role President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry naively envisioned when they hailed the nuclear agreement with Tehran as a symbolic first step in bringing in Iran to help broker a diplomatic settlement in Syria.
Then, there is Iran’s recent conviction of Washington Post reporter, an American citizen, on espionage charges.  The conviction, after years of imprisonment, took place practically on the eve of the nuclear agreement with the U.S. and other powers taking effect.
That was not a coincidence. The conviction, the missile test and certainly the aggressive intervention in Syria are intended as signals that Iran will not back down from its hostile stance toward the West, no matter what papers it signs.
Those signals are meant to be heard loud and clear in the Middle East, where Iran seeks to become the pre-eminent regional power, as well as in Washington, London, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, Berlin and other world capitals. 
So much for cooperation with our newfound partner in the Middle East
The fact is, Iran never had any intention of promoting peace and stability in the region as long as it saw the potential to enhance its own power by making trouble. And so it has continued unabashedly to back terrorist groups such as Hezbollah as it now seeks to expand its sphere of influence into Syria.
If tens of thousands of innocent Syrians have to die or be exiled in service of the cause of creating Greater Iran, so be it, at least according to Tehran’s way of thinking. That’s how this fanatical regime has done things ever since it took over in 1979.
And Mr. Obama, Mr. Kerry and other gullible world leaders actually thought it would be otherwise?
Still, despite Iran’s egregious actions, it appears they don’t intend to make an issue of Iran’s aggressive behavior, other than mouth the usual diplomatic pieties.
Now comes the real test: Under the terms of the agreement, Iran is supposed to put some 12,000 centrifuges into storage, get rid of 12 tons of enriched uranium outside the country and destroy the core of an existing reactor.
All that is supposed to be done before Iran can receive more than $100 billion of its assets that had long been frozen because of sanctions.
So far, however, there’s no indication that compliance is going to happen anytime soon. In fact, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei has denounced the United States for taking advantage of Iran in the 18 months of negotiations leading up to the deal. He has banned any further negotiations with the U.S. as a result.
President Obama vowed that the U.S. will be watching closely “to ensure Iran fully fulfills each and every one of its commitments.”
So far, the U.S. has watched helplessly as Iran has thumbed its nose at the U.S. and the West at every opportunity, despite this much-celebrated deal to promote “peace.”