Iran's deal with Obama is an attempt to save a savage government

Eli Lake:
Remember when a mob of angry Iranians ransacked the British Embassy in Tehran, defacing its walls and stealing its computers? That was in 2011, not way back in 1979. But the rampage was glossed over this weekend when Britain's foreign minister reopened the embassy. In 2011, the U.K. helped impose crippling sanctions on Iran. Today, the U.K. is eager to lift those sanctions.

It's easy to get caught up in the optimism. Now that Iran has signed the nuclear accord, there may be a window for the Islamic Republic -- in its own way -- to rejoin the community of nations. Iran's foreign minister has even told Secretary of State John Kerry that he is now empowered by the country's supreme leader to discuss areas of potential regional cooperation like Syria. Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, now talks about his country's initiative to tackle Islamic extremism in the region. Is the clenched fist now an outstretched hand?

Not so fast. Only two days before Britain's foreign minister arrived in Tehran, Israel says an Iranian Quds Force commander embedded in Syria ordered rocket fire into Israel. Israel struck back in Syrian territory, and formally protested to the six nations that negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran.

As one Israeli official, Dore Gold, told Politico this week: "There’s something untenable about Iran claiming that it is in a negotiating process with the West while it reserves the right to wage war against America’s allies in the Middle East."

Since Iran agreed to the nuclear deal, America's closest allies are taking precautions against Iranian aggression. Egyptian authorities last week, according to the Times of Israel, kidnapped four would-be Hamas commandos en route to Iran for training. Meanwhile al-Arabiya reports that Kuwaiti authorities have arrested a sleeper cell of Hezbollah operatives, a group sponsored by Iran.

U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials this week told me it's too soon to say whether this represents an escalation by Iran. But either way, the U.S. intelligence community does not expect Iran to end its support for regional conflict because of the Iran nuclear deal. This includes Iran's support for Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, support for Shiite militias in Iraq and support for the Houthi minority in Yemen. Iran's agenda in those places is independent of its nuclear ambitions, a U.S. intelligence official told me. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said as much last month at the Aspen Security Forum. "I don't have any doubts, none of us do, about Iranian behavior, the things they do in the region, the promotion of terrorism, their support of proxies like Hezbollah, there's no doubt about that and this agreement, in and of itself, I don't think is going to alter their behavior," he said.
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This is just more evidence of how unintelligent the deal with Iran is since it will provide funding for these terror operations against the US and its allies.  Obama is revealed as a narcissist with an overrated intellect and Kerry is even less intelligent.

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