Supporters of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Agreement (JCPOA) claim that it includes provisions to “snap back” sanctions immediately in the event of Iranian cheating. To Hillel Fradkin and Lewis Libby, the agreement’s fine print renders snapback a delusion:
[T]he Joint Plan grants Iran and its friends grounds to exclude from snapback sanctions long-term sales of Iranian oil and gas, or virtually any non-nuclear items that Iran wishes. It’s a hole in the agreement through which Iran and its future business partners will shove twenty years of, for example, oil tankers. Future U.S. presidents will lose any meaningful economic leverage. . . .
Yes, sanctions snap back in this scenario, but around a huge, multi-million dollar hole. Not surprisingly, Iran has already leaped at this loophole. . . . [Furthermore, those] companies and countries that benefit from such long-term contracts may stand beside [an Iran caught cheating]. . . .
With UN sanctions in interpretive knots, America’s only meaningful tool would be unilateral sanctions. . . . But would we really sanction Chinese or Russian (or French) entities for buying oil that left Iran under long-term contracts the JCPOA apparently exempted from UN sanctions? . . .
So, as the JCPOA commences, Iran will have roughly $100 billion transferred into its coffers; sanctions-free, it will earn more; and it will have long-term contracts worth multi-millions in years to come, even if it breaches the JCPOA. With such assets, no economic coercion will remain viable.
More about: Barack Obama, Iran nuclear program, Iran sanctions, Politics & Current Affairs, U.S. Foreign policy