Information from the cache of document that Israeli intelligence removed from the Islamic Republic confirms two lies at the foundation of the 2015 nuclear agreement, writes Bret Stephens:
The first [lie] was Iran’s declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), prior to the implementation of the deal, of the full extent of its past nuclear work. This was essential, both as a test of Tehran’s sincerity and as a benchmark for understanding just how close it was to being able to assemble and deliver a nuclear warhead.
The second lie was the Obama administration’s promise that it was serious about getting answers from Tehran. In a moment of candor, then-Secretary of State John Kerry admitted “we are not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another”—but then he promised Congress that Iran would provide the accounting. That was when the White House still feared that Congress might block the deal. When it failed to do so, thanks to a Democratic filibuster, the administration contented itself with a make-believe process in which Iran pretended to make a full declaration and the rest of the world pretended to believe it. . . .
So much, then, for all the palaver about the deal providing an unprecedented level of transparency for monitoring Iranian compliance. So much, also, for the notion that Iran has honored its end of the bargain. It didn’t. This should render the agreement null and void. . . . [I]t’s difficult to imagine that the IAEA can now square Iran’s 2015 declaration with what the Israelis have uncovered. Iran’s mendacity is no longer the informed supposition of proliferation experts. . . . It is . . . a matter of fact that the IAEA chose to ignore when it gave Iran a free pass under political pressure to move to implement the deal. . . .
Monday’s news is that Iran didn’t honor its end of the bargain and neither need the United States now. Punitive sanctions combined with a credible threat of military force should follow.
Read more on New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/opinion/tehran-nuclear-sanctions.html