1. Russia is to be trusted? Does no one see a problem here?

The deal put forward by the US and its partners in the negotiations ignores a very basic fact. There is no possible reason to trust Russia. The same Russia which has supported Iran’s nuclear ambitions and retained it as one of its largest clients for arms is also the same Russia led by the same leader who has shown in Ukraine that he cannot be trusted.



This basic fact seems to be eluding every single commentator.



That the US administration is happy to sit and negotiate a deal that is dependent on Russian cooperation and in which it has conflicting interests is puzzling at best and ignorant at worst.



Picture just one of many possible outcomes in which Russia in the next 10 years of the agreement decides that it wants to use the political leverage provided by this deal for its own interests, let’s say angling for a bigger chunk of Eastern Europe and takes as it sees fit?



In the same way that Obama has ignored his own red line in Syria and went on to allow Iran to do as they see fit in Iraq and Syria in order to get them to the negotiating table - at the expense of long-term allies in the region - what odds on him selling out Ukraine completely and eventually the Baltics?



2. The rationale being put forward that a deal is better than another war in the region is completely false.

The region is at WAR.

Israel and Hamas have taken a breather in their ongoing War, Iran’s Lebanese wing, Hezbollah is sitting on Israel’s northern border of Lebanon and now increasingly so on the Syrian Border, threatening another conflict.

Syria is at still in the midst of a civil WAR involving so many different players that it is tough to take any side in a conflict which has seen millions displaced and hundreds of thousands killed.

ISIS in Iraq and Syria presents another WAR while in Yemen, Iran’s proxies have overrun a US backed regime and drawn Saudi Arabia into war.

And so in the midst of it all we have a deal that Obama claims is the best outcome possible and that prevents Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. What a brazen lie. Iran has gained the approval to develop a nuclear weapon in time, leaving non-proliferation as a meaningless concept and bringing the region to the cusp of a nuclear arms race.

