Boosting Iran's Economy

Iran's President: Nuclear Deal Has Helped Economy

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that last month's nuclear deal with world powers has already boosted the country's economy. Rouhani told parliament, "Economic activities have been shifted to the stock exchange from gold, hard currency and real estate."
(AP-Washington Post)


U.S. and Iran See Nuclear Deal Differently - Jonathan Schanzer

After initially celebrating a diplomatic success, Iran is now reportedly lashing out at the U.S. for releasing a modified version of the Geneva agreement that does not reflect its interpretation.

As it stands now, the Geneva agreement looks less solid than previously believed. Rather large gaps remain on core issues. Both sides have at least a month to iron out the details; the agreement will not be implemented before late December or early January.
The writer is vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
(CNN)
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UPDATES:

Poll: Americans Disapprove of U.S.-Iran Nuclear Deal    

43% of Americans disapprove of the agreement between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program, while 32% approve of the deal, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center conducted Dec. 3-8.
    
By roughly two-to-one (62% to 29%), those who have heard about the agreement say Iran's leaders are not serious about addressing international concerns over the country's nuclear program.  
(Pew Research Center)
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Iran Building Terror Infrastructure to Strike U.S. - Mitch Ginsburg

Iran has built an infrastructure of terror in Central and South America in order to target Israelis and Jews there and have a base from which to attack the U.S., Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said.

"They built this infrastructure for the eventuality that they will have to act against Jews, Israelis or Israeli interests, but it is important to them as an infrastructure that enables them to act within the United States."
(Times of Israel)
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Containment, Not Prevention, Is the Real U.S. Policy
- Bret Stephens

The Obama administration's policy on Iran's nuclearization is containment, not prevention.

"There's nothing in this agreement or document that grants Iran a right to enrich," Mr. Obama said. The reality is that the Geneva deal allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium, and it specifies that a final accord "would involve a mutually defined enrichment program." So Geneva doesn't "grant" Iran a right to enrich. It merely accepts it de facto and envisions it de jure.

The argument is now being made that a containment policy beats the unforeseen risks associated with stopping Iran by force.

People who dine in Washington eateries that only recently Tehran made plans to blow up should not concede this point so cavalierly. If Iran was prepared to aggress that way without the benefit of a nuclear umbrella, just imagine how it will behave with one.
(Wall Street Journal)
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Deciphering Iran's New Foreign Policy - Mardo Soghom
 
Regime survival is an overriding factor. How much can Khamenei give up or change in Iranian policies without endangering the regime's survival?

If Khamenei makes a drastic change in relations with the U.S., other things will follow: Ordinary people will yearn for openness, social freedoms, and a better economy. Reformist activists will feel empowered and emboldened to ask for more.

Gradually, more openness will bring a larger foreign - Western - footprint into the country. Khamenei, most clerics, and Revolutionary Guards think of this as a nightmare.
(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
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ANOTHER IMPORTANT UPDATE:

U.S. Admits Iran Will Get $20B from Sanctions Relief - Amos Harel

Senior officials in the Obama administration have conceded in conversations with Israeli colleagues that the value of the economic sanctions relief to Iran could be much higher than originally thought in Washington, security sources in Israel told Ha'aretz.

Official U.S. statements said the economic relief would be $6-7 billion. Israeli assessments were $20 billion.

The Americans now concede in their talks with Israel that the sanctions relief is worth much more.
(Ha'aretz)
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