After 20 months of heated debates, the United States and the its international allies have come to an agreement that Iran will no longer be able to obtain a nuclear weapon.
According to whitehouse.gov, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is to cut off all of Iran’s routes to nuclear weapons, including a covert pathway. The plan will also instigate “vigorous, intrusive, and unprecedented transparency measures” which will make sure that Iran cannot get weapons. If Iran violates this deal, sanctions will be put back into place.
This deal prevents Iran from being able to obtain nuclear weapons made from plutonium and uranium enrichment. Therefore, they will no longer be able to build any more heavy water reactors. Iranians will also have to remove “two-thirds of their centrifuges which are used to enrich uranium,” according to whitehouse.gov.
According to Curt Sullivan, an adjunct professor in the University’s humanities and social sciences department, the International Atomic Energy Agency will be in charge of inspecting the enrichment facilities located in Iran. This will help to ensure that they are only enriching enough for research and development.
By limiting the ways that Iran can get nuclear weapons, it will provide more security for the United States troops and allies that are stationed in Iran. Furthermore, it will limit the ways that terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, which are tied to Iran, can get nuclear weapons.
Before the sanctions were put into place, Iran was supporting terrorists, such as Hamas in the Gaza strip.
“But if the deal is effective and cooperation continues over the length of this agreement, then it is possible that Iran could be convinced to stop supporting terrorist groups in the next 10 to 15 years,” explained Sullivan.
Since Iran will have limited access to nuclear weapons, they will pose a lesser threat to Israel.
Professor of religion and philosophy David Vila explained that some Christians feel like they cannot be supportive of the government of Iran because of Iran’s hostile history with Israel. Vila said that this is not so much a religious issue as it is a political one.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action “has the full backing of the international community,” according to a press release on whitehouse.gov. Without this deal, Iran would have no sanctions on the Iran nuclear program, enabling them to test and build more centrifuges.
Sullivan explained that this deal could help Iran’s economy. In the past the United States and the European Union have had strict sanctions on Iran. If Iran follows the agreement then it will allow for foreign energy companies to invest money into the Iranian oil. This could be beneficial to the United States as well as to the Iranian economy.
“It is anticipated that the price of oil in the U.S. may drop significantly due to removal of sanctions against Iranian oil,” Sullivan said.