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Rubio and Iran’s (Non-existent) “Global-Power Status”

Iran clearly isn't being treated as an equal, but is instead being treated as a pariah.
Rubio

Marco Rubio gets a lot of things wrong in this interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, but this must be one of his most bizarre assertions about Iran and the nuclear deal:

[The Iranians] are now the power in the region that has been given global-power status [bold mine-DL].

Rubio has said something like this before, and it’s just as ludicrous now as it was then. It’s a striking testament to how poor Rubio’s foreign policy expertise is that he claims to believe something like this. He gets away with making false and risible claims because he has cultivated the appearance of knowing what he’s talking about, and so he isn’t usually challenged or called out when he makes obvious errors. He’ll say the silliest, most unfounded things and continue to be taken seriously.

Iran has agreed to significant restrictions on its nuclear program that go far beyond what it is required to do as a member of the NPT, and it was pressured into making those major concessions by the major powers. The fact that Iran has negotiated an agreement with these major powers does not give Iran the same status that they have. On the contrary, Iran’s acceptance of the terms of the Vienna agreement confirms that just the opposite is true. If Iran had been given “global-power status,” it wouldn’t be expected to abide by severe restrictions on its nuclear program, but would be treated as an equal by the major powers. Iran clearly isn’t being treated as an equal, but is instead being treated as a pariah that has been forced to conform to the major powers’ wishes. Rubio is so desperate to find flaws in the deal that he is reduced to endorsing such blatant falsehoods, which should tell you something about the quality of the rest of his arguments against the agreement.

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