President Obama took the opportunity to speak at this week’s Nuclear Summit. He spoke positively of the United State’s unprecedented and controversial nuclear deal with Iran last October. Centrifuges have been dismantled, enriched uranium has been shipped from the country, all the while a number of sanctions still hold true for the government of Iran.
President Obama stated that:
“After nearly two years of intensive negotiations and strong sanctions, the countries represented in this room achieved what decades of animosity and rhetoric did not: a long-term deal that closes off every possible path for Iran to build a nuclear weapon and subjects Iran to the most comprehensive nuclear inspections ever negotiated.”
The October deal came to fruition after months of battling from GOP congress members. They even took extreme measures, sending a letter to Iran about the frailty of the deal under potential Republican rule. Furthermore, Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to speak against the deal in congress without the consent of President Obama.
Without digressing too much into the history of the deal, it is still interesting to look back on the obstructionism and overt disrespect conservative congress members doled out during the proceedings. Despite their attempts Obama is now speaking of the deal’s successes months after its completion. The fear mongering by the opposition failed to destroy it.
“Full and continued implementation is going to take the same kind of cooperation and consultation. This deal does remind us that when the international community stands as one we can advance our common security… This is a success of diplomacy that hopefully we’ll be able to copy in the future.” – President Barack Obama
It is a nice benchmark for Obama in his last Nuclear Summit. In 2010, he organized the first of this biennial event, leading to discussion between countries on how to decrease their stockpile of nuclear material. As we consistently suffer the consequences of our own military industrial complex, it is pleasant to see the use of diplomacy to solve some of the world’s larger issues.
Featured image via Flickr by Minister-president Rutte, available under a Creative Commons Attribution License
