"If loving Trump is wrong, I don't want to be right" Sing it, Sunny! You're love is so deep you'll never be in any danger of being right. Let's go to the wayback machine..... After the US Embassy in Tehran was seized, President Jimmy Carter froze $11 billion in Iranian assets held in US institutions. Jump ahead to the Obama Administration, who had a goal of both taking Iran out of the nuke game as well as building a framework for additional negotiations with Iran. The Obama Admin drew up the JCPOA, which severely limited enrichment of uranium and production of plutonium, mothballed enrichment reactors, and limited Iran's use of centrifuges to the IR-1 type, which can only produce a purity of uranium useful for medical purposes or power generation, not bombs. Iran's use of IR-2M centrifuges was totally restricted, as was its ability to produce weapons grade material. At the time, Iran had about 7 tonnes of low enriched uranium and 200 kg of medium enrich uranium. The JCPOA limited Iran to 300kg of LEU and 0kg of MEU. All facilities were open to inspection by the IAEA. In return, the US would release about $1.7 billion of Iran's frozen assets. (Iran was motivated to talk because Obama had put some genuine fear in them when he unleashed the Stuxnet virus that wobbled their existing HSCs. Other restrictions and sanctions of Iran remained in effect, such as missile technology. The JCPOA was an agreement originated by the US, but approved and signed by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council as well as Germany and the EU. In the US, the JCPOA had bipartisan support, including from senior Republican Senator Sam Nunn. All was well, and both the IAEA and the US intel community regularly confirmed Iran was in full agreement and compliance with the JCPOA. Iran was out of the nuke game. Iran's most hardline officials were being pushed into the background. Some even were choosing to take their ill gotten gains and resettle in Dubai to "enjoy" their golden years. Iran was ripe for further negotiations, and it seemed the days of the hardliners were over and, given time, Iran might even drop its theocracy and morph into a functioning democracy, something the Gulf monarchies are unlikely to ever do. Because Obama has done the deal, Trump tossed it. Iran then pulled out and immediately re-started both its enrichment and nuke program, the hardliners regained significant control and influence, all leading us to where the world is today. Trump is the root cause of the problem he has exacerbated with his war of choice. Had he not been so woefully insecure and jealous of Obama, he could have used the JCPOA as a stepping stone for yet more negotiations. Rather than negotiate---something at which he is notoriously bad---he decided to pretend he's a tough guy and use others to blow stuff up.
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