Iran & the Nuclear Deal

Overview

HARRIS & BIDEN: Promoters of the Iran Nuclear Deal
On July 14, 2015, the Obama–Biden administration — along with the leaders of Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany — together finalized a nuclear agreement with Iran. Its official name was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), whose key elements included the following:

Iran was permitted to keep and operate more than 5,000 nuclear centrifuges, machines necessary for enriching uranium to the degree necessary for the production of nuclear weapons.
Iran received $150 billionin revenue from sanctions relief, even though Obama-Biden acknowledged that Iran would likely use some of that money to fund its military and terrorist activities.
Iran was prohibitedfrom purchasing weapons from other countries for five years, and from buying missile technology for eight years. But there were two significant exceptions: Russia and China could continue to make weapons deals with Iran.
Iran was given the discretion to blockinternational inspectors from its military installations.
Only inspectorsfrom countries that had diplomatic relations with Iran would be given access to Iranian nuclear sites. Thus, there would be no American inspectors.
Sanctions were liftedon critical parts of Iran’s military, including a previously existing travel ban against Qasem Suleimani, leader of the terrorist Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran would not be requiredto renounce terrorism against the United States, as Obama-Biden deemed such an expectation “unrealistic.”
Iran would not be required to affirmits “clear and unambiguous … recognition of Israel’s right to exist” — a requirement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pleaded for.
Whatever restrictions were placed on Iran’s nuclear program, would expire — due to so-called “sunset clauses” — at various times over the ensuing 5 to 11 years.

Sen. Harris characterized the deal as “the best available option for blocking Iran from developing nuclear weapons capability and to avoid potentially disastrous military conflict in the Middle East.”

VP Biden dismissed the concerns of critics who warned that the sunset clauses pertaining to key parts of the agreement would “pave Iran’s path to a bomb.” Such naysayers simply “don’t get it, they’re wrong,” he claimed.

In 2018, Biden characterized President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Deal as “a self-inflicted disaster” that would make “another war in the Middle East” much “more likely.”

HARRIS & BIDEN: Iran Now Can Produce a Nuclear Weapon Quickly
On February 5, 2024, Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reported: “Iran has enough weapons-grade uranium to produce its first nuclear weapon within a week and a total of six bombs within a month.”

HARRIS & BIDEN: Iran’s Cash Reserves Skyrocket Under Biden-Harris
Iran had $122 billion in cash reserves in 2018, at which point the Trump administration began to implement its “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions, causing those cash reserves to plummet down to $4 billion by the end of 2020.

But under the Biden-Harris administration, that figure rebounded dramatically. As The Washington Free Beacon reported on November 9, 2021: “The Biden administration’s decision to pursue diplomacy with Iran and unwind the Trump administration’s sanctions has helped the country recover from its cash shortage, according to the [International Monetary Fund]’s projections. The group says Iran’s cash reserves will top $31 billion by the end of the year and increase up to $42.9 billion by the end of 2022.”

WALZ: Supporter of the Iran Nuclear Deal
In 2015, Rep. Walz voted in favor of approving the Iran Nuclear Deal. He wrote that while “this deal is far from perfect,” he believed it to be “our best path forward.” Moreover, Walz would continue to vocally defend the accord in subsequent years, and he criticized President Trump when the latter eventually withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018.

TRUMP: Opposed the Iran Nuclear Deal
Recognizing the potentially catastrophic ramifications of the Iran Nuclear Deal, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in May 2018. Upon announcing his decision, Trump made the following remarks:

“The deal lifted crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for very weak limits on the regime’s nuclear activity, and no limits at all on its other malign behavior … all around the world. In other words, at the point when the United States had maximum leverage, this disastrous deal gave this regime — and it’s a regime of great terror — many billions of dollars, some of it in actual cash.”
“At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.”
“Last week, Israel published intelligence documents long concealed by Iran, conclusively showing the Iranian regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons.”
“In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget has grown by almost 40 percent, … After the sanctions were lifted, the dictatorship used its new funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, support terrorism, and cause havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond.”
“The agreement was so poorly negotiated that even if Iran fully complies, the regime can still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time. The deal’s sunset provisions are totally unacceptable.”
“The deal’s inspection provisions lack adequate mechanisms to prevent, detect, and punish cheating, and don’t even have the unqualified right to inspect many important locations, including military facilities.”
“Not only does the deal fail to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but it also fails to address the regime’s development of ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads.”
“[T]he deal does nothing to constrain Iran’s destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism.”
“America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction.”

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