David Ignatius, "Iran committed to making a deal": And Also Committed to Making an Atomic Bomb

In his latest Washington Post opinion piece entitled "Iran committed to making a deal" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-iran-committed-to-making-a-deal/2013/12/15/0261a632-65c4-11e3-a0b9-249bbb34602c_story.html?hpid=z2),  David Ignatius, an Obama confidante and cheerleader, provides a platform for Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's protestations that Iran does not intend to build an atomic bomb. Ignatius writes:

"On enrichment, for example, Zarif insisted that Iran could continue its domestic program with some limits and greater transparency. 'We do not see any reason now that we have put so much time and effort in it, and brought [the West] to the point of abandoning the illusion of zero enrichment in Iran, why should we accept anything less.'

As for Iran’s heavy-water reactor at Arak that would produce plutonium that could be reprocessed as nuclear fuel, Zarif explained: 'We cannot roll back the clock 20 years and ask Iran to simply get rid of a project that has been the subject of a great deal of human and materiel investment. However, there are various ways of making sure that this reactor will remain exclusively peaceful.'

Asked about a U.S. demand to close the enrichment facility at Fordow, built into a mountainside, Zarif said: 'If you sit in Iran, and you see people having concerns about Fordow, the only conclusion you can draw is that they want to attack you.'"

Yup, Iran has indeed put much time and effort in enrichment, and is now only months away from building its first nuclear weapon.

The heavy-water reactor at Arak? As Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, one of the architects of Obama's "agreement to agree" with Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei, recently stated (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/12/wendy-sherman-on-pbs-newshour-irans.html):

"[W]e're not quite sure what you need a 40-megawatt heavy water reactor, which is what Arak is, for any civilian peaceful purpose."

Fordow, which was built into a mountainside? The flip side of the coin is that Iran is desperate to disguise and protect bomb building activities there.

Ignatius concludes his opinion piece by observing:

"'We’re living at a crossroad,' the Iranian foreign minister said. But he rejected former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s argument that Iran must become 'a nation rather than a cause.' He argued that, like America, Iran wanted to press both its values and its interests. America isn’t alone in seeing itself as an 'extraordinary nation,' Zarif said: 'We do, too.'"

Zarif is correct: Iran is indeed an "extraordinary" nation. It is the world's per capita leader in capital punishment. Then, too, its hanging of homosexuals from cranes in the middle of Tehran, its stoning to death of women accused of adultery, and its torture and murder of Baha'is, Kurds, Sunnis, Christians and political dissenters, also mark Iran as "remarkable."

But why should Obama and WaPo cheerleader Ignatius concern themselves with the hellish conduct of this ignominious regime? After all, it was an agreement, albeit an agreement to agree, that was desired.