Was the Iran nuclear deal worth ignoring Hezbollah's crimes?
This Politico article has been making the rounds recently. It’s a long read, but one that I think is worth it:
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/
“In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.”
“as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests.”
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Hezbollah is Iran’s muscle in the Middle East.
Both are Shiite powers in a part of the world that is mostly Sunni.
Iranians are Persian, but most of the conflicts that interest them are in the Arab countries, so they need an Arab surrogate that knows the language and customs. Plus, Iranian people are not particularly interested in becoming involved in armed conflict.
Hezbollah is their agent, their flunky if you will. Persians do not generally hold Arabs in high regard.
For Hezbollah, the relationship is a source of money for social services in Lebanon plus they use it for weapons, and salaries for their fighters.
So you can’t one without the other.
So there would be no way to make any kind of deal with Iran, without sort of coming to an accommodation with Hezbollah.
So the real question is should their be a nuclear deal with Iran at all. You can argue both sides of that and never come up with the right answer.
It definitely delays the inevitable nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
I dunno. Was shutting down communist insurgencies in South America worth propping up drug cartels? These kinds of “make a deal with the devil”, “the ends justify the means” type things have been a component of US foreign policy for ages.
I didn’t read the full article but I think it is a mistake to link Hezbollah and drug trafficking with the Iran nuclear deal. While are trying to get a nuclear deal with North Korea it makes no sense to rip up the one we have with Iran.The Iran deal shows that nuclear proliferation can be stemmed but only if we honour its provisions.
Yes, It’s like trying to demolish a building because one neighbor is an ass. Big picture, always big picture.
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