By seeing the defeat of Islamic State, desirable though that is, as a top security priority, writes Moshe Yaalon, American leaders are ignoring the far greater threat of the Islamic Republic. With more people, more resources, better military technology, and, soon enough, nuclear weapons, it is also every bit as bloodthirsty as the Sunni jihadists it is now fighting—and the nuclear deal has strengthened it further:
[In the deal], Tehran gained much more than it gave up. In exchange for postponing its military nuclear project, it achieved the lifting of many economic sanctions, an end to its political isolation, and the loosening of restrictions on its ballistic-missile program.
[T]he Iranian negotiators . . . played a weak hand superbly. And in fourteen years, when critical restrictions will be lifted, the world may be in a worse position to prevent Iran’s nuclear project than ever before. . . .
It is not too late to repair the impression that the West—led by the United States—views Iran as part of the solution to the problems of the Middle East, rather than the chief source of the region’s instability and radicalism. Of course, Iran fights Islamic State; the fact that the world’s leading radical Shiite government fights radical Sunnis should come as no surprise.
[But] those who believed that the nuclear agreement would lead to a more moderate, open, reformist Iran, at home and abroad, regrettably suffer from wishful thinking. So long as the ayatollah’s regime governs Iran, there is no chance we will see a McDonald’s in Tehran. Instead, we will see more executions, more repression, [and] more tyranny.
Read more on Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-yaalon-iran-threat-20160929-snap-story.html