EU Expert: After Nuclear Deal, Iran Would Have 'More Money,' Adding to Regional Instability
March 30, 2015 - 8:12 PM
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech on March 21 marking the Persian new year Nowruz. (Photo: Office of the Supreme Leader)
(CNSNews.com) – A European Union counter-terror expert warned Monday that a nuclear deal with Iran could worsen regional security, because once sanctions have been lifted, Iran will be better equipped to step up its destabilizing activities. This in turn would draw a bigger response from its rivals that might include support for extremists.
During a briefing at the European Parliament, the E.U.’s counter-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, said the Sunni nations feel “a bit on the defensive because of the rise of Iran.”
Asked whether a nuclear agreement would have an impact on regional stability and terrorism, he replied, “Yes, of course, because Iran will have even more money.”
“It is a sophisticated country, with a vision, more and more powerful in the Middle East, and therefore on the Sunni side there might be temptation for some to support extremist groups to fight against Iran by proxy,” de Kerchove said.
Iran’s behavior in the region – including its support for proxies in Yemen and Lebanon, its backing for the Assad regime, its increasing influence in Iraq, its threats against Israel, and its ballistic missile development – is not under discussion in the nuclear negotiations in Switzerland.
At the same time the Obama administration argues that those destabilizing activities in the region underline why it is so important for a deal to be reached preventing it from developing a nuclear weapons capability.
Briefing reporters by teleconference from the Swiss city of Lausanne, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf was asked about issues like the conflict in Yemen.
“I think the fact that Iran, quite candidly, is taking some destabilizing action or supporting people that are in other parts of the region, and the fact that the region is facing a number of challenges right now is one of the main reasons why we actually want to diplomatically prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon – and that if you can imagine Iran armed with one, how much more power they could project in the region and how problematic that would be,” she said.
But Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a leading critic of the Iran talks, said Monday the proposed agreement would send a message that “there is no price for [Iranian] aggression” in the region.
“The moderate and responsible countries in the region, especially Israel and also many other countries, will be the first to be hurt by this agreement,” he said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“One cannot understand that when forces supported by Iran continue to conquer more ground in Yemen, in Lausanne they are closing their eyes to this aggression. But we are not closing our eyes and we will continue to act against every threat in every generation, certainly in this generation,” Netanyahu said.
In a recent speech Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed that the talks in Switzerland were dealing with the nuclear dispute alone, not with other regional issues.
“The negotiations with the U.S. are about the nuclear issue and nothing else,” he said in Tehran on March 21, according to a MEMRI translation. “Everyone must know this. We are not negotiating with the U.S. about any regional issues. The goals of the U.S. regarding regional issues run counter to ours.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/eu-expert-after-nuclear-deal-iran-would-have-more-money-adding
My comments: And "deal" with Iran is Farcical. They have one intention--one mandated by the Koran--to ANNIHILATE Israel, America and anyone else who will not CONVERT to Islam.
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