Only two months ago, deal fans boasted that Iran's missile ambitions were crimped:
Now, with the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the P5+1 and Iran, which will block Iran from building nuclear weapons for well over a decade, along with a new UN Security Council resolution (2231) on the nuclear deal, which extends restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile activities and trade, the potential threat from Iranian ballistic missiles has been radically reduced.
Well, this is promising in making Iran a responsible regional partner, as our president hopes:
Iran tested a new precision-guided ballistic missile on Sunday in defiance of a United Nations ban, signaling an apparent advance in Iranian attempts to improve the accuracy of its missile arsenal.
The Islamic Republic has one of the largest missile programs in the Middle East, but its potential effectiveness has been limited by poor accuracy.
An expert quoted in the article said that the Iranians will need years to perfect the new guidance systems.
But to be fair, nuclear warheads make that level of precision unnecessary.
Yes, this limit stems from the UN and isn't in the deal. But the UN resolution on missile limits is part of the interlocking package that supporters use to defend the sham arms control agreement.
Amazingly, Iran simply denies that the UN resolution which restricts nuclear-capable missiles is applicable to this test because "Iran says none of its missiles are designed for that purpose."
Well, then. I feel silly even bringing up the issue.
Don't expect the president or his supporters to express any doubts about the wisdom of this outreach to Iran that has not prevented them from teaming up with Russia to escalate the war in Syria and stoke unrest around the Persian Gulf region. Rather than restraining Iran, the deal restrains President Obama:
The mullahs see the “deal” as a means with which Obama would oppose any suggestion of trying to curb Iran.
“Obama won’t do anything that might jeopardize the deal,” says Ziba Kalam, a Rouhani adviser. “This is his biggest, if not the only, foreign policy success.”
Apparently, Rouhani has a pen and a phone, too.
Have a super sparkly day.
UPDATE: We'll take this to the UN:
The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it appeared Iran's missile test announced over the weekend violated U.N. Security Council resolutions and that Washington would raise the incident at the United Nations.
I'm almost giddy with anticipation.
But I'm sure we'll agree with the Iranians that the missile test can't possibly violate the UN ban on testing nuclear missiles because the Iran deal prevents Iran from having nuclear warheads. Ipso facto, and whatnot.
UPDATE: Iran pretends this is nothing:
Iran has said its missiles would never carry a nuclear warhead as it has no plans to develop atomic weapons[.]
Let's see if we can match the Iranians by pretending to believe them or pretending the missiles just don't matter.
UPDATE: Our level of pretending is easily as good as Iran's:
The United States was set to issue conditional sanctions waivers for Iran on Sunday, though it cautioned they will not take effect until Tehran has curbed its nuclear program as required under a historic nuclear deal reached in Vienna on July 14.
See? We're pretending that accurate long-range missiles are completely irrelevant to nuclear weapons!
