BATON ROUGE – A landmark deal was struck in Vienna today between Iran and six world powers, including the United States, meant to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful, wasted no time in posting a petition on his “Bobby Jindal For President” website encouraging Americans to reach out to Congress to oppose today’s deal and to put the heat on Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
“Congress should oppose this dangerous deal,” Jindal said. “Secretary Clinton should be a voice of reason and oppose this deal. While Secretary Clinton has been the architect of President Obama’s foreign policy, she can do the right thing and prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and oppose this deal.”
Jindal’s press statement reads:
“If Secretary Clinton goes along with President Obama’s efforts to appease Iran, it will make our enemies stronger, endanger our ally Israel and trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that will destabilize the region.
“Throughout this process, President Obama appeared more concerned with reaching a deal irrespective of the terms. The result is now a dangerous deal that has put Iran on a path to obtaining a nuclear weapon, depleted America’s military strength in the Gulf, and made Israel less safe. And that certainly makes us less safe here at home.
“The Obama Administration is wrong when they suggest the IAEA can still inspect all of Iran’s nuclear facilities. The agreement does not provide for anytime-anywhere access to Iran’s nuclear facilities. President Obama admits that the 24-7 access is to ‘key’ facilities, which means not every facility can be surveyed. The Obama Administration is not being truthful with the world about this deal.”
According to George Jahn with The Associated Press, highlights of the Iran nuclear deal include:
—ENRICHMENT: Iran will reduce the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges it has from almost 20,000 to 6,104, and reduce the number of those in use from some 10,000 to about half that. Those limits will be in place for 10 years, then gradually relaxed over the next three. Iran also commits to using only its current models, rather than more advanced centrifuges it had wanted to install. Centrifuges spin uranium to concentrate it into levels that can range from reactor fuel to the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.
—STOCKPILE: Iran has already rid itself of stockpiled uranium that was enriched to one step from weapons-grade material. It is now committed to reducing its remaining stockpile — less-enriched uranium that is harder to use for nuclear arms — from about five tons to 300 kilograms (less than 700 pounds) for 15 years. U.S. officials say that at this level it would take Iran at least a year to enrich enough uranium for a nuclear weapon.
—UNDERGROUND SITE: Iran committed to convert its Fordo enrichment site — dug deep into a mountainside and thought impervious to air attack — into a research center. The site will still house centrifuges but they will make medical isotopes instead of enriching uranium, and there will be less than a tenth as many of them as there originally were.
—TRANSPARENCY: Iran will give more access to its nuclear program to the U.N. nuclear agency. If that agency identifies a suspicious site, an arbitration panel with a Western majority will decide whether Iran has to give the agency access within 24 days. All sites, including military ones, may be inspected if the agency has solid evidence of undeclared nuclear activity.
—REACTORS AND REPROCESSING: Iran must redesign its nearly built reactor at Arak so it can't produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
—SANCTIONS: All U.S. and European Union nuclear-related sanctions will be suspended after experts have verified that Iran is hewing to its commitments. If at any time Iran fails to fulfill its obligations, those sanctions are supposed to snap back into place. An arms embargo will stand for five years and restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile programs for eight. Iran will get some access to currently restricted sensitive technologies.
