Deal aims to ‘fundamentally reconfigure’ MidEast

As President Obama attempts to convince a skeptical American public and Congress on the Iran nuclear deal, he has presented the agreement as limited to reducing Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon and not part of a broader transformation of Iran. But additional statements by Obama and others in his administration have indicated that the deal is indeed a stepping-stone for diplomatic developments that U.S. allies who are critical of the deal—like Israel and Saudi Arabia—consider worrisome.

“This is absolutely the objective of the deal,” Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council think tank and author of the recent book “Iran’s Deadly Ambition: The Islamic Republic’s Quest for Global Power,” told JNS.org. “Some of the components of the deal such as the scope of sanctions relief, the delisting of known terrorists, they don’t have much of anything to do with the Iranian nuclear program.”

“Even though the Obama administration says this is transactional, that it is only intended to deal with the nuclear program, the real thrust of this is that it is intended to be transformational. It is intended to be a confidence-building measure that potentially allows for a reset in relations with Iran and the United States,” Berman said. 

In an Aug. 8 interview with CNN, Obama said he sees the Iranian nuclear issue as making it possible for broader talks with Iran on other issues like the Syrian civil war.

“Is there the possibility that having begun conversations around this narrow [nuclear] issue that you start getting some broader discussions about Syria, for example, and the ability of all the parties involved to try to arrive at a political transition that keeps the country intact and does not further fuel the growth of ISIL (Islamic State) and other terrorist organizations? I think that’s possible,” Obama said.

Secretary of State John Kerry recently echoed Obama’s sentiment on the Iran deal’s broader ambition.