"If Iran violates the deal, sanctions can be snapped back into place," Obama declared last week.
Already, Russia has announced that it is willing to ship advanced S-300 air defense systems to Iran that had been held up because of sanctions:
The original sale was agreed in 2007, and was only called off by Russia two years later as a "voluntary" move to show its dedication to the nuclear talks, in which it is working alongside fellow UN Security Council permanent members the US, Britain, China, and France plus Germany.
Pray tell, if Iran violates an agreement and we actually have the nerve to call them on it, will these delivered missiles "snap back" to warehouses near Moscow?
No? Oh snap.
Oh well. And neither will the Nobel Peace Prizes bestowed on Secretary Kerry or President Obama snap back to Oslo.
So there you go.
UPDATE: Speaking of North Korean-Iranian cooperation:
North Korea supplied several shipments of missile components to Iran during recent nuclear talks and the transfers appear to violate United Nations sanctions on both countries, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
Since September more than two shipments of missile parts have been monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies as they transited from North Korea to Iran, said officials familiar with intelligence reports who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Details of the arms shipments were included in President Obama’s daily intelligence briefings and officials suggested information about the transfers was kept secret from the United Nations, which is in charge of monitoring sanctions violations.
And yes, I was speaking of North Korean-Iranian cooperation.
UPDATE: Uh oh:
"With the progress of the Iranian nuclear track -- and that is obviously positive -- we do not see any reason to continue to keep the ban (on the delivery of the S-300) unilaterally," Putin told his annual marathon call-in show with Russians.
We and the Iranians don't even agree on what our proto-deal says we are committed to agreeing to when talks resume (to say nothing of our allies' views), and Putin rewards them with advanced air defense missiles?
What will Putin give Iran when we have an actual deal? Nuclear-tipped ICBMs? "Well, Iran's willingness to limit nuclear work proves they can be trusted with nukes," he'll say at his next call-in show.
