Michael Axworthy, a British commentator wrote in an article for the British daily The Guardian, that “despite a thin, lingering cloud of buts and maybes”, the deal was ‘historic.
After more than four days of intense negotiations, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the US, Britain, Russia, France, China-- plus Germany, sealed an interim deal in Geneva on Sunday morning to pave the way for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.
The article said despite ambiguities and different comments by Iran and US over right of enrichment being recognized for Iran in the deal, it can be said that “it (the deal) does provide for Iran to continue enrichment below the 5% level (consistent with "peaceful purposes"), subject to conditions and the still-to-be-negotiated final settlement”.
Moreover, “signed off by seven of the world's most important foreign ministers, it nonetheless also signifies international recognition of Iran as a major nuclear power,” Axworthy wrote.
He continues that, “part of the significance of the deal is that both the US and Iran have pulled back from positions of intransigence, confrontation and escalation.”
“The Iranians could have remained obdurate against any kind of concessions or limits on their nuclear program” while “the US could have continued with the "no enrichment, can't trust Iran" line, steadily increasing the sanctions' pressure until the only sanctions left to apply were military ones,” the article said.
Senior Israeli officials, including regime’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have been hard at work in recent weeks trying to discredit Washington’s strategy with Tehran.
The aggressive lobbying campaign included one-on-one briefings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, which provided data that strayed from official US assessments of Iran’s nuclear program.
“It is a mistake for Netanyahu, the Saudis or anyone else to suggest that would have been the right course. Things may yet go wrong, but it must be right to give the delicate seedlings of trust and diplomacy a chance. It involves risk, and courage, but it is the kind of risk that, ultimately, politicians are paid to take. After a decade and a half of interventionist wars, American, British and other servicemen and their families have a right to demand that diplomats and politicians exhaust all avenues of negotiation before we resort to military options”.
Netanyahu had warned Washington that a diplomatic deal with Tehran would be “a historic blunder.” The hawkish premier responded angrily after the accord was struck, calling it a “horrible mistake.” He added that Israel would not be bound by it.
SHI/SHI