The Worst Alternative to the Nuclear Agreement Is its Elimination

So far, Iran has not responded to the shock of the new strategy announced by President Donald Trump. All the reactions from Tehran are confined to the repeated verbal threats that everyone is accustomed to not taking seriously, even threats to Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is the Iranian regime’s “reformist.” Zarif responded by saying that all the Iranian people are revolutionary guards, and Tehran seems to be waiting for the next two months, during which the next practical steps will be taken to implement Trump’s strategy.

Yet Trump lit the spark and left the task of extinguishing it to Iran, throwing the flaming ball onto the Iranian court: Either agree to accept reforming the imbalance in the agreement and modify it, or cancel it, thereby steering the world in a direction where Iran possesses a nuclear weapon. Washington will certainly not accept any recurrence of a new North Korea in the Middle East.

Perhaps the worst alternative to the current nuclear deal, which is very bad, is its elimination. It is in no one’s interest to reach this stage with so many restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. No one wants the region to slip near the brink. The agreement that the administration of former President Barack Obama deliberated left behind a crisis due to one catastrophic error: The agreement was linked to “Iranian nuclear policy” and not to “Iranian policy” in general. That led to a set of flaws and gaps in the agreement, and prompted the Revolutionary Guard to implement a strategy of exporting the revolution as a constitutional doctrine of the Iranian regime.

For example, Iranian airlines are the lifeblood of the Bashar Assad regime, and it is shameful that the Obama administration, when easing sanctions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, dealt only with the nuclear side. Iran proceeded with plans to buy 118 Airbus planes at a time when these civilian aircraft had been recently used to transport mercenaries and military gear in an open air bridge from Tehran to Damascus in August 2016 (one year after the nuclear agreement). Forbes Magazine revealed that Mahan, a civil aviation company close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, continues its secret flights by using fake flight numbers to secretly transport arms and fighters to Damascus under civilian cover. Note that the agreement in its current form does not require the Iranian air carrier to stop supporting terrorism or to stop any illegal activities, nor is it clearly punishable.

Perhaps one of the biggest gaps in the original negotiations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action comes from not listening to those countries directly threatened by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, namely the Gulf Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia. President Trump can remedy this flaw by annexing these countries in the next negotiation, as they are most affected by Iran’s proximity to the nuclear threshold in the future.

To make matters worse, there are those in Washington, London, Berlin and Paris who firmly believe that they know the danger which surrounds the Gulf states more than those countries do themselves. As a result, the talks prior to the nuclear agreement have been going on for years without taking into account the real dangers in the region. All of this means the agreement is full of holes and flaws, which has helped Iran to overstep the red lines around its nuclear file without any deterrent.

It can be said that the siege of Iran’s aggressive behavior will only be achieved by resisting a nuclear agreement that does not impose sanctions on Iran. It must offer the possibility of freezing billions of dollars in its favor, returning it to the international community as an effective member but without allowing it to use its militias as subversive tools, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the extremists in Bahrain, and the Afghan, Iraqi and Iranian Shiite militias fighting alongside the Syrian regime. The new strategy on Iran is not only aimed at dealing with the nuclear agreement, but with all of Iran and its aggressive behavior. This is undoubtedly the biggest gap left open by the agreement, and it allowed the Iranian regime to use it as a reward to stop its nuclear program. It is time for Tehran to demonstrate either its desire to return as a natural state or to continue as a rogue state that insists on manipulating the security and stability of the region.