After two years in the works and numerous missed deadlines, the P5+1 — United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China — and the Islamic regime of Iran reached a formal nuclear agreement. But, as expected, the deal is “mutually beneficial” for all the wrong reasons: Obama can punt the issue to the next administration; meanwhile, Iran — which is expected to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons for a decade — will quietly continue its operations underground. The Washington Free Beacon reports, “In one of the most controversial concessions made by the Obama administration, a United Nations embargo on arms will also be lifted within around five years as part of the deal, according to multiple reports. A similar embargo on the construction of ballistic missiles, which could carry a nuclear payload, also will expire in around eight years under the deal. Initial readings of the deal also indicate that Iran will be given the right to veto so-called ‘anywhere, anytime’ inspections of Iranian nuclear sites.” Congress will have to give the deal the go-ahead, but that likelihood increased significantly thanks to the legislative compromise crafted by Sen. Bob Corker. As National Review’s Andrew McCarthy explained, “[I]nstead of requiring the president to convince a two-thirds supermajority of the Senate to approve the Iran deal, it requires opponents to convince a two-thirds supermajority of the full Congress to defeat the deal.”

If Congress approves the deal — which it surely will — and Iran follows through on some preliminary conditions, the regime will be awarded $100 billion from frozen assets — something over which John Kerry appeared remorseful. “We realize how deeply the nuclear related sanctions affected the lives of Iranians,” he said. Adding insult to injury, according to The Wall Street Journal, sanctions relief “could help Iran’s economy to expand by 7% to 8% annually for years to come.” Leave it to Obama to stimulate Iran’s economy more than ours. Israel is understandably infuriated. “Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons,” warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Many of the restrictions that were supposed to prevent it from getting there will be lifted. Iran will get a jackpot — a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars — which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror.” Still, that didn’t prevent the antagonizer in chief from taking a victory lap. “The United States, together with our international partners, has achieved something that decades of animosity has not,” Obama proclaimed, “a comprehensive, long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” In April, Mark Alexander explained that “the central issue is not whether Iran can be trusted, but that Obama can’t be trusted.” That’s what makes this deal so alarming and, indeed, dangerous.