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Far-Left Koch and Soros operatives mount lobbying campaign to revive Iran nuclear deal

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Few people were aware of just how bad Obama’s Iran nuke deal really was. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran explains some of the deal’s very worst aspects:

1. The expiration dates: While the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the agreement is called, did include real restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, these were all slated to expire in the near future. The agreement anticipated the “conclusion of consideration of the Iran nuclear issue by the U.N. Security Council 10 years after the Adoption Day” — that is, the adoption of the agreement itself on July 14, 2015. It added: “There will be no additional heavy water reactors or accumulation of heavy water in Iran for 15 years.” But what about after that? The agreement didn’t say. Apparently, at that point, Iran would be free to build nuclear weapons with no objections from anyone.

2. The delay in inspections: The day after the conclusion of the JCPOA, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observed: “Iran has two paths to the bomb: One if they keep the deal, the other if they cheat on the deal.” They could get the bomb even if they kept the deal because the JCPOA contained the provision that Iran could delay requested International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections for up to 24 days — ample time to clean up for the inspectors.

3. The removal of sanctions: Even before the deal, it was questionable how effective the economic sanctions that the United States and U.N. had placed upon Iran really were. In March 2015, Thomas Erdbrink, Tehran bureau chief of the New York Times and longtime resident of Iran, remarked, “As the politicians are talking for months to end the sanctions, my shopkeeper tells me he has more foreign products for sale than ever.”

Nonetheless, the JCPOA was quite definite about removing all economic sanctions on Iran. This included the removal of sanctions that had originally been intended to be removed only when Iran definitively gave up its nuclear program; now the Islamic Republic was being given sanctions relief and allowed to continue its nuclear program, only with certain restrictions that would all eventually expire anyway. Sanctions relief allows the Iranian mullahs to finance jihad groups worldwide.

4. The lack of any consequences for breaking the agreement: The 159-page Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action went into tremendous detail about the Iranian nuclear program and how it is to be temporarily restricted in various ways. It also expatiated at length on exactly which sanctions were to be removed. But it was conspicuously lacking in specifying penalties for Iran’s not holding to the agreement. There was vague talk about the sanctions being reimposed, but no concrete guidelines about how that was to be done, and nothing said about recovering money given to Iran in the interim.

5. Americans were not to be allowed to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites: On July 30, 2015, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pointed out, “American and Canadian inspectors cannot be sent to Iran. It is mentioned in the deal that inspectors should be from countries that have diplomatic relations with Islamic Republic of Iran.” IAEA inspectors, he added, would not be given access to “sensitive and military documents.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera the following day, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, further broadened these restrictions to apply to other signatories to the deal as well: “Regardless of how the P5+1 countries interpret the nuclear agreement, their entry into our military sites is absolutely forbidden.”

Who, then, was supposed to be inspecting Iran’s nuclear sites? Why, Iran itself.

6. Iran could inspect its own sites: On August 19, 2015, the Associated Press dropped a bombshell. Confirming rumors that had circulated since the agreement was signed, it reported that a secret side deal between the IAEA and Iran allowed the Iranians to conduct their own inspections of their own sites: “Iran, in an unusual arrangement, will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect a site it allegedly used to develop nuclear arms under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work.”

These terms were, obviously, absurdly easy on Iran. What exactly did the rest of the world get out of this agreement? Only a newly flush and increasingly bellicose Iran, thanks to Barack Obama. And possibly again soon, thanks to these lavishly funded hard-Left operatives.

“Koch, Soros Operatives Host Secret Meeting To Plot Iran Nuke Deal Revival,” by Alana Goodman, Washington Free Beacon, February 1, 2023:

A coalition of progressive activists bankrolled by George Soros, Charles Koch, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund are mounting a secret lobbying campaign to revive the Iran nuclear deal by tying it to the Iranian human rights movement, according to internal correspondence obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Activists from groups including J Street, NIAC Action, the Open Society Foundations, Human Rights Watch, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund are coming together behind a plan to lobby lawmakers to use human rights bills as cover to revive negotiations for a nuclear deal with Iran. That’s according to a January email sent from a J Street lobbyist to other activists and obtained by the Free Beacon.

“I’m writing to suggest that this group convene virtually next week to brainstorm and hopefully find consensus on the elements of legislation to support the Iranian people that we could propose to diplomacy-oriented lawmakers,” J Street’s Dylan Williams wrote. “Given the usual need to be discrete [sic], the charged nature of the topic, and the outrageous threats against several members of this group, please do keep this initiative close-hold,” he added.

The activist groups “plan to pursue a dual-track legislative agenda, where they would find a way through legislation to give pro-deal Democrats cover by supporting Iranian women and Iranian human rights, without in any way challenging the revival of a nuclear deal, while at the same time building a coalition of members of the House and Senate willing to write a very public letter to the president urging him to keep the door to diplomacy over on the nuclear file,” a source familiar with the discussions told the Free Beacon.

The news comes as U.S. lawmakers are facing increased public pressure to tighten sanctions on Iran amid the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on protesters and continued military support for Russia. The strategy is a sign that even the strongest advocates for the nuclear deal realize the pro-diplomacy position has become politically toxic—and that politicians who want to reenter the agreement will need to at least give the appearance of backing the Iranian human rights movement.

The Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on protesters, military expansion in Latin America, and threats against the United States have complicated the Biden administration’s attempts to renegotiate the nuclear deal, but supporters of the agreement say the negotiations should continue despite these concerns.

The activists’ strategy—crafted during a private summit in New York in December—includes pitching human rights legislation to pro-Iran-deal lawmakers, in order to give the legislators political cover to sign a letter asking the Biden administration to consider resuming the nuclear agreement, a source briefed on the discussions told the Free Beacon.

The activists gathered for a strategy meeting during the week of Dec. 3 at the Pocantico Center at Kykuit, the John D. Rockefeller family’s estate in Westchester County, New York, a source familiar with the discussions told the Free Beacon. The 200-acre property houses the family’s 40-room stone manor, an underground gallery with artwork by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, and “expansive Italian-inspired gardens with French and English influences,” with views of the Hudson River, according to the New York Times.

J Street’s Williams sent the email to a small group of activists, including NIAC Action’s Ryan Costello, Open Society’s Mike Amitay, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Matt Duss. These groups have all received funding from either George Soros or Charles Koch, both political megadonors….

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