So argues Ephraim Asculai, noting that the Islamic Republic very well may have the design for a nuclear bomb already. Tehran, after all, signed the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and inspectors recently found out that it had been violating its terms for years. Yet rather than be punished, it is being rewarded:

Iran threatened the world that unless [investigations into its nuclear-weapons program were ended], it would withdraw from the deal. No one dares to call Iran’s bluff. . . . The main implication is that any state, even a member of the NPT, can probably develop nuclear weapons with impunity. It will not be punished in any way, especially if it is a threatening, terrorism-supporting state, with regional (or global) hegemonic ambitions. The United States, once considered the champion of non-proliferation, aided and abetted in this misdeed. . . .

The next victim of this shambles is the possibility of creating a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. . . . The shortsightedness in not daring to deal properly with Iran could be the undoing of the whole world order, rickety as it may have been until now.

Robert Satloff has some harsh words for the U.S. government in this regard, words I take especially seriously because Satloff is someone inclined to political moderation. Why, he asks, have American diplomats failed to achieve anything in their endless rounds of talks in Doha and Cairo? Because

there is simply not enough pressure on Hamas to change course, accept a deal, and release the remaining October 7 hostages, stuck in nightmarish captivity. . . . In this environment, why should Hamas change course?

Publicly, the U.S. should bite the bullet and urge Israel to complete the main battle operations in Gaza—i.e., the Rafah operation—as swiftly and efficiently as possible. We should be assertively assisting with the humanitarian side of this.

Satloff had more to say about the hostages, especially the five American ones, in a speech he gave recently:

I am ashamed—ashamed of how we have allowed the story of the hostages to get lost in the noise of the war that followed their capture; ashamed of how we have permitted their release to be a bargaining chip in some larger political negotiation; ashamed of how we have failed to give them the respect and dignity and our wholehearted demand for Red Cross access and care and medicine that is our normal, usual demand for hostages.

If they were taken by Boko Haram, everyone would know their name. If they were taken by the Taliban, everyone would tie a yellow ribbon around a tree for them. If they were taken by Islamic State, kids would learn about them in school.

It is repugnant to see their freedom as just one item on the bargaining table with Hamas, as though they were chattel. These are Americans—and they deserve to be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.