WEEKLY STANDARD
by Lee Smith
November 24, 2014

……The issue is not just that Iran has repeatedly cheated, but that the administration keeps helping. When it became clear Iran was selling more than the million barrels of oil per month that sanctions relief permitted, White House spokesmen counseled patience: Maybe next month, they said, Iran would sell less and get under the cap. And when it didn’t, all the administration could do was shrug.

It’s the same now with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Iranians won’t let the U.N. agency in to count and catalog the entirety of their program. It’s a concern but not a deal-breaker, says the State Department. After all, any agreement will include a mechanism to monitor whether Iran is keeping up its side of the bargain. But if the IAEA can’t get in to find out exactly what Iran has now, post-deal inspections to see if Iran is keeping its word are all but irrelevant.

Iran’s nuclear weapons program is just one part of its expansionist regional project, which now boasts control of four Arab capitals—Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, and Sanaa. The administration has acquiesced to Iran’s ambitions throughout the region by, among other things, coordinating policy with Iranian surrogates in Lebanon and Iraq, and forgoing the opportunity to help topple Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad, even though Obama had demanded the Syrian president step aside.

Odds are good the White House will strike a deal with Iran. All indications are that Obama wants a deal—any deal. As the president has explained in a number of interviews, he is aiming for a new geopolitical equilibrium balancing traditional American allies, like Israel and Saudi Arabia, against their longstanding adversary in Tehran……

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