Stephen Harper: Why it’s time to stop negotiating with Iran

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In the shadow of Russia’s appalling war against its peaceful neighbour, misguided efforts to revive the U. -Iran nuclear deal have continued. The dangerous naiveté among Western leaders that left Ukraine outside NATO also underlies efforts to make deals with Tehran. We should hope that negotiators do not return to Vienna and that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action process with Iran is abandoned for good. withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 and have long viewed the effort as fatally flawed.

Rather than stopping Iran’s nuclear program, the JCPOA in fact left the mullahs inching ever closer to nuclear weapon capabilities. Worse, the original 2015 deal served to enrich the Iranian regime and helped it finance and expand its terror network that is destabilizing the wider region. Meanwhile, Iran has predictably used the talks to push for additional, outrageous concessions, such as the removal of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U. First, the approach fails to recognize that Iran’s nuclear program is only a manifestation of its extremist Shia theocratic ideology. That ideology calls for goals that threaten the wider region.

Western leaders should have recognized this truth in the case of Russia long before Feb. We must not wait for an equally dire moment with Iran to figure it out. Second, and even more troubling, is that the obsession with engaging Iran has caused many leaders to lose sight of who are our real allies in the region, especially the Gulf Arab nations that share our fundamental security interests. Just as the West needs help from them with the energy challenges presented by dependence on Russia, these countries need our support from the serious threat they face from Iran.

Several of them have pursued an unprecedented thawing of relations with the democratic State of Israel, while some in the West seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Western leaders must learn from the mistakes that led to the attack on Ukraine and start dealing with the world in accord with our own security interests. A nuclear armed Iran, with its apocalyptic vision, would be nothing short of catastrophic for its regional neighbours and global security, including the interests of North America. The breakdown of the JCPOA talks in Vienna is not a tragedy.

It is an opportunity for the West to learn from its mistakes and choose a more rational path forward. Source: Stephen Harper | NP

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