Iran Deal a Repeat of North Korea Agreement?

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CBN News

JERUSALEM, Israel -- The Obama administration and the Netanyahu government continued their campaigns to either endorse or criticize the nuclear deal with Iran. The debate took place as Congress begins its 60-day period to review the agreement.

Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took turns on the Sunday talk shows defending their positions.

"Ronald Reagan negotiated with the former Soviet Union. Richard Nixon negotiated with what was then known as Red China. You have to negotiate sometimes with people to make the world and your country safer," Kerry told told CBS's "Face the Nation."

"And we negotiated because President Obama thought the primary challenge here was getting a nuclear weapon away from Iran and we believe that this deal does that," he added.

But Netanyahu suggested Iran had just received its "dream deal," warning the agreement was destined for the same end as the 1994 accord with North Korea.

"There was a celebrated deal just a few years ago, a nuclear deal everybody -- the international community, the scientific community -- everybody applauded it," Netanyahu said on "Face the Nation."

"It was a deal with North Korea," he continued. "That proved to be a historic deal as well. And North Korea today has a dozen nuclear bombs and is on track to get a hundred nuclear bombs. So I think that this is a repeat of the mistake of North Korea."

Meanwhile, the clock began ticking on the 60-day period for Congress to review the agreement. The Obama administration, however, plans to take the accord to the U.N. Security Council before Congress can vote.

While Kerry and Netanyahu staked out their positions and Congress began its review of the accord, crowds in Tehran shouted "Death to America."

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei vowed Iran's policy toward what he called the "arrogant" United States would not change and pledged to support its allies in the region.

"America's regional policies run counter to the Islamic Republic's policies," Khamenei said. "We will not stop supporting our friends in the region: the oppressed people of Palestine, the oppressed people of Yemen, the people and government of Syria, the people and government of Iraq, the oppressed people of Bahrain, and the true jihadists in Lebanon and Palestine."

With billions of dollars in sanctions relief, many Middle East observers fear Iran will soon be able to resupply the terror groups: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

In the meantime, as one more sign of the growing tensions in the region, 47 percent of Israelis would support a unilateral strike against Iran's nuclear program.

CBN News

JERUSALEM, Israel -- For Hamas, the nuclear arms deal with Iran portends financial and political windf

alls it believes will strengthen its standing among other Iranian ter

ror groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Anticipating the benefits of the deal, Hamas sent Musa Abu Marzouk to Lebanon last week to meet with Hezbollah general secretary and spiritual leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Salah al-Bardawil said the recent visit of political chief Khaled Meshaal to Saudi Arabia didn't affect its deep ties with Iran.

Hamas will maintain relations with all those who financially, militarily, and spiritually support the movement, Bardawil said, Iran's semi-official FARS news agency reported.

"The visit of a delegation from this movement, including Khaled Meshaal, to Saudi Arabia and improvement of Hamas-Riyadh relations will not influence our ties with Tehran," he said, echoing statements by Gaza chief Ismail Haniyeh.

'Close and Intimate'

In March, Haniyeh told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Hamas wanted to strengthen its ties with the Islamic Republic, despite the often sharp divide between Sunni Islamists (Hamas) and Shiites (Iran).

"The Palestinian nation and resistance is honored by its close and intimate relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and is resolved to continue them powerfully," Haniyeh told Rouhani by phone, according to the report.

During the same month, senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar said the group has close ties with Iran and with other nations in the region, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

"The movement has good relations with Iran and it is persistent in maintaining these ties because Iran, unlike others, helps Hamas without expecting anything in return," al-Zahar said on the group's al-Aksa satellite television network. "The movement has good relations with Arab and Muslim states, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, as well."

For years, Iran provided arms, training and funds to Hamas in Gaza and elsewhere. That relationship faltered somewhat in 2012 when Hamas refused to back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and endorsed anti-government activists.

"I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform," Haniyeh said at an Egyptian mosque during a visit to Cairo, Reuters reported.

Bardawil also said, "The hearts of the Palestinian people bleed with every drop of bloodshed in Syria. No political considerations will make us turn a blind eye to what is happening on the soil of Syria."

Parting of the Ways

Then, when Egypt ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi last spring and elected former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in his place, the budding relationship between Hamas and Egypt went south, largely due to Hamas support of Sinai-based terror cells.

Following Morsi's ouster, Israel strengthened ties with Egypt, supporting its battle against terrorists in the Sinai.

The Obama administration, for its part, withdrew support from longtime ally Hosni Mubarak during the so-called Arab Spring in 2010. Mubarak was forced to resign and the Muslim Brotherhood took over, helping to elect Morsi. A year later, Morsi was toppled by popular demand, with the backing of the military, as he sought to impose fundamental Islamic rule on all Egyptians.

El-Sisi began cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and other terror groups embedded in the Sinai Peninsula. He closed the Rafah border crossing, destroyed Hamas smuggling tunnels, and dug a huge trench along the border with Gaza, all designed to destroy Islamic terror groups, which flourished under Morsi.