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Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21661/iran-nuclear-agreement
Why a Nuclear Agreement with Iran Is Not Enough
(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - Even if Washington and Tehran reach an agreement on Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, unless it features "anywhere, anytime" inspections, to which Iran has never agreed, Iran will secretly continue to develop nuclear weapons and cheat, cheat, cheat. Moreover, Iran is not going to stop its financial and military support for its terror proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hizbullah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen. In short, Iran is not going to abandon its declared goal of obliterating the "Zionist entity" or the United States. Were it not for Iran's financial and military support, its proxies would not have been able to fire thousands of rockets, ballistic missiles and explosive drones at Israel over the past 20 months. The Trump administration must demand an immediate halt to the funding and arming of the Iran-backed Islamist terror groups. Furthermore, it must demand that Iran's leaders stop calling for the annihilation of Israel. As President Trump was voicing optimism regarding the prospects of reaching a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime, Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, received a delegation of Hamas and PIJ officials in Tehran. Iranian and Palestinian media quoted Velayati as "assuring" the officials that "the Zionist entity is doomed to disappear." Velayati "praised the victories of the Palestinian resistance [against Israel] as a rare achievement in the history of Islam." He also reassured the Palestinian terror leaders that the Iranian regime is determined to continue supporting them, to help them achieve their goal of murdering Jews and eliminating Israel. As long as the mullahs continue to wish for the destruction of Israel and America, and to back Islamist terror groups, they should be treated as dangerous enemies of both Israel and the U.S. The writer, a veteran Israeli journalist, is a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.