JINSA President and CEO: One of MOU’s Biggest Problems is U.S. Pledge to Leave Iran Alone

Please note: Dr. Makovsky’s interview begins at the 59:10 mark.

President Donald Trump has agreed to make major concessions to Iran as part of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) reached on June 14. Just under two months ago, President Trump pledged to not sign a deal unless the Islamic Republic of Iran “paid a big enough price, for what they have done to the world … over the past 47 years. But after signing a weak deal with the Iranian leaders who openly seek America’s destruction, it is the United States that is now paying a steep price in terms of its national security interests and credibility, according to JINSA President and CEO Michael Makovsky, PhD.

In a June 18 interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, Dr. Makovsky observed that America has explicitly pledged, under the MOU’s terms, to not destabilize or weaken the Iranian regime. That, coupled with the removal of the U.S. blockade and other concessions, will make it much harder for the United States to regain leverage, he argued.

In addition, Israel may soon face an even more aggressive Hezbollah even as it is being pressured to scale back its operations against the Iran-backed terror group. Hezbollah is likely to receive a large portion of the funds that will soon flow to Iran under the MOU’s provisions, Dr. Makovsky said.

Key Quotes from Dr. Makovsky’s Fox News Appearance

• “When President Trump started this war, he had the right idea. I give him a lot of credit for initiating this war … and building up a lot of leverage. For some inexplicable reason, though one can speculate why, he’s really given up a lot of that leverage.”

• “[Downblending Iran’s uranium] would absolutely not [be sufficient]. You need to get it out of the country.”

• “Something not in the deal is [Iran’s] missiles. … That was a mistake by the American negotiators.”

• “I’ve seen reports that the Iranians are communicating that Hezbollah is going to get a lot more money. One of the problems with the MOU is that almost automatically, we’re going to remove the blockade, oil’s going to flow, and Iran is going to get a lot of export revenue. … One of the things they’re going to do with that is fund Hezbollah.”

• “[Keeping Israeli forces in Lebanon] is a clear redline for Israel. No Israeli Prime Minister would [withdraw forces in this situation]. When you have Hezbollah, which is an Iranian proxy, attacking Israeli soldiers and Israeli towns, you can’t just passively say ‘oh, well.’ … This is probably the biggest redline for the Israelis right now.”

• “I’ll quote from paragraph 2 of the MOU … the U.S. is supposed to ‘refrain from interfering in Iran’s internal affairs.’ … We’ve now said we’re not going to get involved in weakening this regime … that’s the only way we’re going to resolve all these nuclear issues, proxy issues, and so on.”