Since the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Iran diplomatic relations between the two states have steadily deteriorated. The United States galvanized the international community to impose stricter sanctions impacting every aspect of Iranian government and culture. In a stunning display of successful soft power in action after nearly 40 years of intense sanctions, the Iranian leadership reached out through diplomatic channels once thought to be permanently severed in order to negotiate a compromise. The Iranian nuclear deal is one of the most successful foreign policy initiatives in recent history. Establishing the precedent that nations can negotiate with the United States and that soft power resolutions are preferable to open conflict may very well be the greatest accomplishment of the Obama presidency. Unfortunately, if the Republican party succeeds in repealing US support of the deal, which Donald Trump has declared he will do on day one of his presidency, it will unravel years of US foreign policy and soft power, not to mention embarrass the United States as the only member of the UN security council to go against the proposition.
In essence, the Iran nuclear deal is one of the most shameful incursions of state sovereignty since the USSR seized Eastern Europe. Iran has been developing nuclear technology since the Shah dynasty, one of the few initiatives the Pahlavi family was not successfully coerced by the United States into abandoning which is surprising for a figurehead. In the roughly twenty years of developing nuclear technology, the Iranian government has not been successful in developing a nuclear weapon. At the time of the deal, the Iranian breakout time was astonishingly low, breakout time being the amount necessary to produce a nuclear weapon, of approximately months. The Iranian government underwent drastic changes under the changing perspectives of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and the moderate tone he has allowed in government. The introduction of a moderate president and clergy willing to accept the measures outlined in the deal took the international community by surprise.
In exchange for rolling back some of the sanctions against their economy, Iran has agreed to gut almost the entire nuclear program, reducing their breakout time to a year or more. In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gains constant access to any nuclear facility, potential facility and anything they deem as potentially suspicious. Iran is granted 24 days to comply with requests by the IAEA otherwise the sanctions return. The IAEA holds the stability of the Iranian economy in its hands, which is especially tenuous under the strain of falling oil prices and the oversaturated global market. Iran literally handed its state sovereignty over to a non-governmental organization (NGO) affiliated with the UN for the next 15 years. In order to stabilize its economy and move forward in the international community, Iran sought a diplomatic resolution that the United States helped shape and the international community accepted. If for any reason the United states violates the Iran nuclear deal, there will be no moving forward in the Middle East. The United States credibility, which is already extremely tarnished, will have been destroyed. It is already difficult for the United States to protect its interests in the Middle East after invading several times and being unable to prevent Israel from committing atrocities against its minority Arab population. The Iran Nuclear Deal is vital to US interests in the Middle East, even if it is flawed.
The BBC wrote an article detailing the general impact of the deal.
