Obama national security adviser Rice blasts ‘flimsy’ Iran agreement: ‘So many concessions were granted’

Former national security adviser Susan Rice blasted the preliminary agreement between the Trump administration and Iran in an unique interview Sunday, calling the struggle with Iran a “strategic blunder” and arguing that the United States has now made “so many concessions” that quantity to “a very bad outcome.”

“It’s egregious, Jon, because so many concessions were granted up front in this flimsy, two-page memorandum of understanding that wouldn’t normally and shouldn’t have been granted until after there was not only a full comprehensive deal to at least deal with their nuclear program, but also that those provisions that were negotiated had been agreed,” Rice advised ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

Rice served as former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser when the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally generally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was negotiated over a 12 months and a half earlier than finally being signed in July 2015. Under that multinational settlement, Iran made quite a few concessions on its nuclear program and agreed to by no means search or develop a nuclear weapon, one thing it reaffirmed within the newest settlement. Among the concessions Iran made were not enriching bomb-grade uranium for 15 years, dismantling two-thirds of its centrifuges, giving up 98% of its uranium stockpile and permitting United Nations inspectors to observe its adherence to the deal’s phrases.

According to the textual content of the present settlement, probably the most delicate nuclear points will not be but agreed to on paper. Only one paragraph of the memo addresses Iran’s nuclear program — “The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons” — however on the problem of enrichment limits and coping with the nation’s stockpile of extremely enriched uranium, the textual content just isn’t definitive.

“The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran have agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpile enriched material pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon … with the minimum methodology to be down blending on site under the supervision of the (International Atomic Energy Agency). The two parties also agreed to discuss the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed matters related to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear needs,” the memo reads.

As of the signing of this settlement, Rice famous, Iran “is now able to sell all of its oil and all of its oil products on the market unimpeded, and use that money to re-hold itself.”

“Second, they get access to tens of billions of dollars of frozen assets in the very near term, within the next 60 days, contingent only upon the memorandum of understanding, this flimsy two-page document being implemented. That means essentially, once they’ve opened the strait, they get all access to their frozen assets without any constraint on how they spend it,” Rice mentioned. “In the Obama-era deal, they could only spend those frozen assets on humanitarian things — food and medicine. Now they can use it to fund their terrorist proxies.”

Rice additionally criticized the provisions concerning the Strait of Hormuz, the long run unfreezing of Iranian belongings and the plan for the US and Gulf companions “to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least USD 300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” because the memorandum states. US officers say Iran will be unable to impose tolls within the strait, even after 60 days, that Iran will solely be rewarded economically if it complies with the deal, and that the US won’t contribute any cash to that $300 billion fund.

Karl Rice requested whether or not it is higher to have a deal somewhat than none: “Isn’t a weak peace agreement better than a summary of a war, which I know you opposed from the start?”

“I oppose this war because it was a stupid war, and it was obvious that when you wage a stupid war that every prior president had the wisdom to avoid, that you were going to end up with either bad outcomes or worse outcomes,” Rice mentioned. “It was obvious for decades that the only way to solve this problem is through diplomacy. And now we’re back to diplomacy with a far weaker hand. Yes, their military has been degraded, but Iran has now figured out they can use the Strait of Hormuz to hold us and the global economy host whenever they want.”

Rice, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations earlier than her tenure as national security adviser, mentioned the struggle general was a “strategic blunder.”

“We have suffered enormously. The American people have suffered. We’ve lost 13 servicemen and women. We have paid over $50 billion of taxpayer money for a war we should never have waged. The American consumer is paying more than $50 billion in increased costs. Our standing in the world is weakened,” she mentioned. “And we’ve shown that when the United States, the greatest military on the face of the planet, and the Israeli army, the Israeli military, throw the kitchen sink at Iran, they can left — be left still standing, which weakens us globally.”

While Israel and the United States began the struggle collectively, they don’t look like ending it on the identical web page. On Thursday, Vance chastised Israeli officers who were publicly criticizing the settlement.

“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” he mentioned at a White House press briefing.

Rice mentioned she thought Vance’s assertion was “extraordinary” and “I’m sure it shocked a lot of people, particularly in Israel.”

She mentioned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to “persuade many prior presidents to engage in war with Israel against Iran.” Trump, she mentioned, was the primary to “take the bait,” however now, Rice mentioned Israel is worse off.

“What we’ve got as a result of that war… is a strengthened Iran in terms of its geopolitical stature in the region, not militarily conventionally in the short term, but its nuclear program is fully intact. There is nothing in that agreement that requires that the nuclear material, the dust, as the president likes to call it, will be removed from Iran,” Rice mentioned. “So, the Israelis have suffered the most because now — you know, this administration, if you take the president and the vice president’s words, you have basically said to Israel, ‘Your concerns are not ours.'”