Documents obtained by the Associated Press in June show that the Obama administration had intimate knowledge of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and opted to sign the nuclear deal anyway.
According to the secret documents only accessible to US and Iranian negotiators during President Obama’s whirlwind PR campaign to sell the deal to the American public, Iran will plan on replacing its centrifuges with thousands of highly advanced, updated models after 10 years. These new centrifuges are five-times more efficient and capable of enriching uranium, the primary component in a nuclear bomb, twice as fast, cutting Iran’s nuclear breakout time from 12 months, as Obama had promised, to just six months.
While the deal still places some provisions against enrichment until about the 15th year mark, it’s unclear which enforcement mechanisms remain in place during the cooling period at the 10-year mark, when Iran will be given more free reign to produce “peaceful” nuclear energy.
The fact that the Obama administration knew about this and struck side deals to ensure that Iran’s requested concessions would be approved demonstrates the sheer risk US negotiators took when they shook hands with their Iranian counterparts.
“The document outlines how Iran plans to escalate its uranium enrichment efforts with the blessing of the Obama administration until it reaches the point where a nuclear breakout would require only a few weeks of work,” explains The Daily Signal’s James Phillips.
Adding insult to injury, Iran has praised the leak documents as illustrations of Iranian power and sway. The provisions in the documents were carefully crafted by Iranian “negotiators and industry experts,” claimed Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. It comes down to a “matter of pride.”