Iran’s Conservative Opposition Spurns Nuclear Deal

Officials See US, Britain as Untrustworthy

The Obama Administration isn’t the only government facing opposition to the Iran nuclear deal from conservative hawks. While most of Tehran is celebrating in the streets, Iran’s conservative opposition is predictably lashing the deal.

Negotiations with the P5+1 were a top priority of Iran’s Reformist government, and a centerpiece of President Rouhani’s campaign. Much like the US hawks, the complaints center around the notion that the other side involved in the negotiations simply can’t be trusted to uphold the deal.

That’s the public line, at least, but in both cases the objections center around fear of a shift in the status quo. Politicians in both cases have made a career for decades on fear-mongering the other country, and the prospect of a rapprochement between the two nations makes them seem obsolete.

The conservatives in Iran have opposed several previous attempts at a rapprochement with the international community, and are continuing to gripe about the pact, but in the near-term they appear to have few options to really foil the deal, and it is so popular domestically their griping is risky indeed.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.