Obama seals place in history with Iran deal: Welcome to ‘a more hopeful world’
History has been made, ensuring a cherished place for US President Barack Obama for taking the biggest diplomatic gamble of his presidency by defying sceptics and going ahead with the Iran nuclear deal. The deal signals an end to Tehran’s international isolation, with Mr Obama underscoring that it wasn’t just trust that drove him into a path-breaking rapprochement with Tehran, but the operative mantra of verification that underpins this historic moment that could remap the geopolitical landscape of the volatile Middle East.
In his address on the Iran-P5+1 Deal, President Obama said the deal has paved a New Way Forward and hailed in a messianic tone that the step represented the journey towards a “more hopeful world.” In a similar vein, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani struck an optimistic note, saying that the deal proved that “constructive engagement works”.
“This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction,” Obama said, adding: “We should seize it.”
The deal envisages the lifting of sanctions imposed on Tehran by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for Iran delivering on long-term curbs on a nuclear programme that has been suspected by the West of creating a nuclear arsenal in a volatile region.
While Iran would take steps to implement the agreement and the sanctions would be lifted by the UN, but Obama warned Iran that any violation of the deal and the sanctions would be snapped back again. The deal is seen as Obama’s biggest Foreign Policy legacy till date and if it passes through the Congress, history would judge Obama for changing the course in Middle East and a victory for diplomacy over war.