Will it work?
REPORT: Trump Personally Signs Iran Agreement at Versailles, Memorandum in Effect
President Donald Trump personally signed a copy of an agreement aimed at ending the conflict between the United States and Iran during a dinner at the Palace of Versailles, according to a report from Barak Ravid, the global affairs correspondent for Axios and a CNN analyst.
According to two senior American officials cited by Ravid, the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday evening intended to bring the war to a close. The officials said the signing took place remotely and that the memorandum is now in effect.
According to a previous report by Breitbart News, the memorandum lays out a broad plan to end the conflict and hash out a comprehensive deal within 60 days. Under the agreement, the U.S. and Iran would immediately stop military operations, promise not to launch future attacks against each other, and respect each other’s sovereignty and borders.
The deal also calls for winding down the U.S. naval blockade, reopening the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to regular commercial shipping, and setting up a watchdog group to make sure both sides stick to the rules.
On top of that, the document says the U.S. will team up with regional partners to put together a massive $300 billion reconstruction and economic development package for Iran. Over time, the goal is to fully lift U.S., UN, and international sanctions. In the meantime, the agreement calls for waivers to clear the way for Iranian oil exports and banking transactions, alongside the release of frozen Iranian assets.
In exchange, Iran agreed that it will not pursue nuclear weapons and agreed to negotiate the future disposition of its enriched uranium stockpiles under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Obviously, the usual liberals and squishy Republicans are hating on it, and then some Republicans who are even more hawkish think it’s too soft, but
(Breitbart) Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised President Donald Trump’s agreement with Iran, saying that the deal represents a major foreign policy achievement and a realistic alternative to either appeasing Tehran or committing U.S. troops to another large-scale Middle East conflict.
In a post published on his website, Gingrich said Trump had assembled a broad international coalition while using economic and military pressure to push Iran away from its previous position. He dismissed criticism of the agreement from both the right and left, arguing that many opponents had attacked the deal before seeing its details.
“Negotiating with Iran, monitoring its commitments and occasionally having to pressure the dictatorship militarily or economically is simply reality. (Remember Ronald Reagan’s advice to ‘Trust but verify’ and Connie Mack’s ‘You get what you inspect, not what you expect.’) There will be no end to the requirement to police, monitor, and occasionally penalize the religious dictatorship,” Gingrich wrote. “The leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will try to push for as much influence and flexibility as they can get away with. It’s simply their nature.”
Gingrich then defended Trump’s agreement with Iran, arguing that many critics have attacked the deal before seeing its details and have failed to offer a realistic alternative.
“A lot of people on the right and left have already criticized the upcoming agreement — even when they have never seen it,” Gingrich wrote. “It is hard to understand what they thought the alternative should be.”
From my POV, if it ends Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, it’s a win. If it puts an (mostly) end to Iran continuously causing strife in the Middle East, from attacking Israel, supporting terrorists and terrorist groups, and attacking US interests, that’s a win. Rebuilding Iran, modernizing it, will help a lot to raise up the people of Iran. It would be great for regime change, but, how does that work without a military invasion and takeover? I personally do not want that. They should build refinery capacity. All that money would help lift Iran and make them realize that being flush with cash is better than violence.
And Newt is right: what plans are being offered by all the critics? Some mention Obama’s Iran deal, which would have allowed Iran to start building nuclear weapons in 2030, and which Iran started cheating on immediately. And, of course, the haters are happy when Iran attacks Israel and the Jews, or pays terrorist groups to do so.
Remember, Trump’s whole thing was to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program. That was it. He looked like he would have liked the people of Iran to truly rise up and revolt, replacing the Iranian regime, but, that never materialized after all those protests. One thing he should do is offer to help construct a nuclear power station, which Iran said was the purpose of the nuclear program way back. The Non-Proliferation Pact states that the nuclear weapons powers will help build them, ones that cannot produce weapons grade material, to try and stop other countries from getting nukes. This should have been done decades ago. I guess we’ll see.
Now the question is “does it work?” Time will tell.
