Iran warns US will regret leaving nuclear pact

[karynnj]

2. Unfortunately, the office of the President comes with huge foreign policy powers

I think the nuclear deal was the most significant foreign policy accomplishment in decades. However, President Obama knowingly committed political capital to getting it done. Not to mention, Secretaries Kerry and Moniz were a fantastic team who were extremely committed and very talented in their roles and they had a very strong team led by Wendy Sherman working on the agreement.

Still, even with Obama, Kerry and Moniz it was difficult to convince America that it was a good idea. Why is an interesting story. When Obama spoke to Rouhani in fall 2013, polls showed a very large majority supported an effort to get a nuclear deal. What happened - in spite of the interim deal holding and the framework surprising most pundits by being tougher and more comprehensive than expected, there was a HUGE effort by neocons and others against the deal. Throw in the right wing that would have said Obama lied if he said the sky was blue. Netanyahu did not just speak to Congress, he was on all our networks speaking of how this was a terrible deal -- though parsing his words, showed there was NO DEAL he would support.

It is only now that it is very likely that Trump will throw the deal away that its popularity is above 50%. Some in Congress, who were against it, now argue that it should be kept. However, it is Trump's decision - though the Congress will control if the sanctions are restored. (I would bet that Trump will push this as a national security vote and argue that Democrats who oppose it are both not patriots and not concerned with our security ... and some Democrats will join out of fear.)

The scariest way to view this is NOT that Trump and others want it overturned because Obama's name is on it. The scary thing is to listen to Netanyahu speak about how there is now a natural alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni Gulf states because they all hate Iran. We all can list examples where the enemy of my enemy is my friend (ie OBL in the 1980s) is an utter disaster. It is beyond easy to see in Netanyahu's ridiculous attack on the deal a march to war. A war that was imminent before the nuclear deal was made, now seems imminent again.