Francis A. Avila Jr.: Obama’s deceptions can’t obscure bad deal with Iran

President Obama’s “defiant” speech at the American University last week exhibited his by now signature combination of deception and demagoguery.

The president has presented an “agreement” that is fatally flawed by any reasonable standard. His negotiators have made a series of craven unilateral concessions that will give Iran sanctions relief and United Nations legitimacy at once, while keeping thousands of centrifuges, multiple nuclear sites, the right to develop new, more advanced enrichment equipment, even permission to operate their previously concealed and fortified underground facility at Fordow.

Snapback provisions (that are anything but) are coupled with an inspection regime that John Kerry outsourced to the IAEA, whose agreements with Iran are “confidential.” Congress is being asked to accept this “historic diplomatic breakthrough” while being denied access to the heart of the inspections regime. This is the stuff of comic opera rather than serious diplomacy. The president had a plausible alternative until he frittered it away.

The American people remain deeply skeptical, which might explain Obama’s toxic suggestion that anyone who opposes his deal either wants war or is in thrall to “foreign” powers. (Israel are you listening?) The Bee’s endorsement signals the delusions animating President Obama’s foreign policy are not confined to Washington.

This story was originally published August 11, 2015 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Francis A. Avila Jr.: Obama’s deceptions can’t obscure bad deal with Iran."