Iran - do the
facts matter?
Shannon Bohrer
(9/2019) Before Trump was elected
president he criticized the Iran deal that was made under
the Obama administration. He said the deal did not cover
other weapons, and when elected he would cancel the
agreement and seek regime change.
The history of the Iran deal is
well documented. In 2015, the Obama administration was one
of several countries that made an agreement with Iran for
the purpose of deterring the proliferation of nuclear
weapons. Just prior to the agreement there was a consensus
that without the agreement, Iran could build a nuclear
weapon in about three months. After the agreement, the
consensus was that if Iran cheated, it would take them one
year to build a weapon. However, with the required
monitoring and access, the world would know if the
agreement were violated.
The other countries involved in
the agreement included; England, France, Russia, Germany
and China. Additionally, over 100 countries from around
the world expressed their support for the agreement.
Nuclear physicists’ non-proliferation experts and even
military officials, from around the world also supported
the agreement. In statements they believed it was "the
best solution available to prevent Iran from obtaining a
nuclear weapon without taking military action."
After being elected Trump
continued to criticize the agreement saying the agreement
did not go far enough. He repeated that the agreement left
open the ability for Iran to develop and construct other
weapons. On May 8, 2018 he announced the U.S. would
withdraw from the deal. Trump said "Giving $1.8 billion in
cash [to Iran] in actual cash carried out in barrels and
in boxes from airplanes," added to the bad deal. The
National Security Director added that the administration
would add new sanctions to force Iran back to the
negotiations and the U.S. would be seeking regime change.
The other countries involved in the deal, have not
withdrawn.
Trump’s claim that the United
States gave Iran 1.8 billion in cash, is incorrect. The
agreement to not build nuclear weapons lifted some of the
decade’s old economic sanctions that had been placed
against Iran after the 1979 Iranian revolution. The
sanctions had prohibited Iran from collecting their own
monies and other assets from around the world that had
been frozen. The monies were estimated to be "tens of
billions of dollars in oil revenue and frozen assets." The
majority of the monies that Iran would eventually receive
would come from commercial banks from around the world.
The history of Iran, related to
the president’s actions is relevant and important. From
November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, Iran held fifty two
American hostages, after a group of Iranian college
students, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over
the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. After numerous negotiations
the hostages were released. Part of the negotiations
included an international arbitration, to resolve how
monies, that had been frozen, would be returned to each
country.
The international arbitration (the
Iran-United States Claims Tribunal) has been in existence
since January 1981. Both the United State and Iran
returned assets to each respective country as early as
1983. However, there were still private claims
outstanding. The claims included refunds for military
parts that Iran had paid for, but never received, as well
as the interest on those paymetns. The parts were ordered
under Iran’s monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In 2015, when the Iranian deal was
made, the U.S. paid Iran around $400 million, as part of
the international arbitration agreement going back to
1981. At that time the U.S. was accused of paying for
prisoners, since Iran had just released five Americans
being held in Iran. However, the 400 million was for
military parts that we never delivered. After the Iranian
deal in 2015, the sanctions were lifted and monies were
returned. However, third party claims still existed. Two
days after paying the 400 million, the U.S. paid Iran 1.3
billion, for interest related to the undelivered military
parts going back to 1979. The U.S. paid what they owed.
Now our government wants to
revisit the deal and has imposed more sanctions. Those are
the facts, but not the whole story. The other counties
that were involved the 2015 deal, are not in agreement to
withdraw from the deal. Literally, it is a mess and
because of military movements on both sides there are
Middle East experts predicting that we could end up in
another war. Even, if Iran agreed to re-negotiate and they
gave up additional demands, they won’t agree to regime
change, according to the experts.
In the 1979 revolution the Shah,
who was a monarch, was overthrown. The Shah had been the
ruler of Iran, since 1953, when he came to power in a
coup, against the former government. At that time the coup
deposed the elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad
Mosaddegh. The prime minister had been popular because of
social reforms and progressive economic policies that he
instituted. His problem, as it turned out, was that he
nationalized the Iranian Oil industry. Prior to the
nationalization of the oil industry, it had been
controlled by Great Britain through the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company.
The British and Prime Minister
Mosaddegh had been in talks for months over the Iranian
oil industry. The negotiations ceased when Iran refused to
allow the British any ownership or control of Iranian oil.
The British complained to the United States and it was the
United States and the British intelligences services that
orchestrated the coup that overthrew the Iranian
government.
An elected leader, who believed in
the rule of law, in a limited democracy was deposed and a
dictator was installed. The dictator, the Shah, installed
a secret police and ended Iran’s limited democracy.
Iranians knew the history; that in 1953 we orchestrated a
coup that ended their limited democracy. That information
was front and center in the 1979 revolution that ousted
the Shah. Since the ouster Iran has gone back to a limited
democracy.
The real story is that we helped
to eliminate a limited democracy in the Middle East. We
then supported a dictator, with a secret police. The
country overthrew the dictator and has since re-instated
their limited democracy. They signed an agreement not
pursue the building of a nuclear weapon, along with the
U.S. and five other nations. They were in compliance with
the agreement and we withdrew from it, demanding more
sanctions - and we are seeking regime change?
The regime change we should be
looking for should be our own.
Read other articles by Shannon Bohrer