Blatant Ignorance on Iran Nuclear Deal a Dangerous Course

By Patrick Hiller

The May 8, 2018 announcement by U.S. President Trump to withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Deal is a disastrous decision, shredding successful diplomacy into pieces and paving the path toward destructive conflict and war. In his announcement, the President continued to display his utter ignorance of the nature and functioning of the deal.

The War Prevention Initiative strongly argues that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—commonly referred to us the Iran Nuclear Deal—reduces the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb while greatly increasing the global community’s ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear program.

War Prevention Initiative Executive Director Patrick Hiller stated: “This is not informed leadership. This is a blatant violation of a multilateral agreement. This is a President looking for war. We must not forget that the primary objective of the agreement is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. No more, no less. Moreover, this is agreement goes beyond the U.S. and Iran relations and includes the U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany. Years of diplomatic initiatives have gone into this deal and undermining it will sabotage not only this agreement but call into question the trustworthiness of the U.S. around the world in further diplomatic initiatives. That’s a very bad precedent for initiating constructive approaches with North Korea at a pivotal moment and demonstrates an extremely poor judgment by the President.”

The Iran Nuclear Deal is noteworthy in that complex, adversarial relationships between nations are addressed beyond the military-solution paradigm. Diplomatic efforts have prevailed. Key reasons for the signatories to continue supporting the agreement are:

• This agreement blocks Iran from producing the fissile materials required to create a nuclear weapon.
• The deal contains the most intrusive and stringent inspections regime ever negotiated.
• The deal stands on principles of multilateral, negotiated agreements based on oversight and control, not trust.
• The deal is an opportunity to challenge the dysfunctional military-solution paradigm.
• The deal makes the U.S. and Israel—Iran’s key adversaries—more secure by reducing the risk of a nuclear armed Iran.
• It is in Iran’s self-interest to honor the deal.
• The deal is superior to all alternatives, and implementation of the deal will prevent another devastating war in the Middle East.

“As conflict transformation experts and peace advocates we are, of course, very interested in a nuclear weapons free Iran,” says Patrick Hiller. “In fact, we actively work toward a world without nuclear weapons. In that regard, the U.S. acts with extreme hypocrisy. While trashing a multilateral diplomatic agreement which reduces the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation, the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review calls for modernization of U.S. nuclear forces to sustain the peace through strength paradigm. Modern and more ‘usable’ nuclear weapons fall into the misguided and humanly insane nuclear deterrence thinking which needs to be left behind. We now are at a stage in history where we know better and more effective alternatives to war and violence than risking nuclear annihilation for a nation’s security. The President’s course of action is making the world less secure.”

The War Prevention Initiative informs and educates about viable alternatives to war and violence.Φ

Patrick Hiller [patrick@jubitz.org] is War Prevention Initiative’s Executive Director. This release was emailed on May 8.