Since the 1980's, and the 1979 revolution in Iran, Iran has been under suspicion of using their civilian nuclear power program to secretly develop nuclear weapons. Though never proven, the suspicions have become more credible due to several discoveries during the intervening decades. In 2002 secret plans were discovered in Iran detailing a nuclear program that operated separately from the official program known to the United Nations. The plans include sites that could be used to enrich uranium for use in weapons. After the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 the current Ayatollah of Iran suspended the nation's nuclear program (Sinha & Beachy). Iran forged a new agreement with several European nations as well as the United States- that it then disregarded. In 2005 files on a secure laptop from Iran supposedly showed that they aimed to create a nuclear weapon. In December of 2006 the UN enacted its first round of sanctions against Iran, barring any nuclear material and technology from being brought to the country (Sinha & Beachy). This turbulent history made talks on the nuclear program difficult. Neither side of the issue wished to give in at all. Finally in 2013, the United States and Iran opened one on one talks to find an agreement that will benefit both nations. On April 15, 2015; Iran agreed to many limits that will be put in place on its nuclear program and inspections to ensure its compliance (Sinha & Beachy).

Iran's economy has all but collapsed due to the harsh sanctions in place by the UN and United States. Its people live in a perpetual state of poverty and have no way of fixing this since foreign powers are barred from selling their products. 15% of Iran's people live on less than $5.5 dollars per day ("Iran"). The nuclear deal with Iran will ease the economic sanctions and allow money to flow back into Iran's economy as its vast oil reserves are once again available to the world. Though the deal will open up Iran's economy and drop global oil prices greatly, the deal has many critics who cite the nation's previous unreliability and untrustworthiness when it comes to past nuclear deals. They worry about Iran secretly building weapons as well as where the influx of revenue will be spent. Monetary relief for the impoverished Iranian people, release of vast oil reserves, and strict monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency all far outweigh the perceived threats posed by the Iran Nuclear Deal. Because of these many benefits and lack of credible rebuttal, the Iran Nuclear Deal is a great step toward global cooperation. Though the fears are not baseless, they are not as applicable and troubling as they could be because of the strict monitoring of Iran's nuclear efforts. 

The fears of Iran developing its nuclear program, civilian or otherwise, are based on its history of violations and its disregard both sanctions and UN orders. Though Iran has never succeeded in building a bomb, some analysts fear that the deal will provide them the wiggle room they need to build one in secret. One such fear is for some of the non-nuclear components involved in building a bomb. The conventional explosives used in construction are impossible to regulate under the current restrictions (Parsi, 7). Iran can disguise the development of these as normal development of weapons, declining to offer officials their actual use and purpose. Alongside these explosives, Iran already has in place an extensive rocket program that has progressed greatly and has become quite advanced (Parsi, 8). These weapons have little use defensively, thus making their intended use frighteningly obvious. These advanced weapons are a possible delivery method of the nuclear weapons they are supposedly developing to this day. So, Parsi argues, if we are unable to control these components of nuclear weapons, how can we expect to prevent them from developing the other parts needed to create a nuclear weapon(Parsi, 8). 

These weapons are unable to be regulated under the current situation and the current details of the treaty; however, is not as terrifying a fact as it seems. Though they are essential parts of a nuclear weapon, trigger and delivery system, they are useless as a nuclear weapon on their own. They miss the essential key of nuclear weapons, enriched nuclear material. Without this nuclear material, it is impossible to create a true nuclear weapon. This fact was not overlooked by the drafters of the nuclear deal, which prevents Iran from gaining enough enriched material to create a bomb. Nuclear material must be enriched before it becomes weapons grade. Enrichment is achieved through the use of centrifuges at nuclear sites (Uranium). Iran has a finite amount of these essential centrifuges. Currently Iran has 20,000 of these centrifuges between two enrichment facilities. The nuclear deal will require it to cut this number by nearly  three-fourths  to 6,104 (Historic Deal). In addition to this, Iran will be restricted to enriching uranium to only 3.67% which is not even close to the level needed for nuclear weapons (Peralta). Unfortunately, this is not the only path to acquiring the needed material to create a bomb. Iran can buy the material from others, or produce the material itself at a secret unregulated facility. The deal protects against these paths to the material as well. The only facility that is able to directly produce nuclear material will be redesigned and converted so it is no longer able to produce the weapons grade material (Historic Deal). As well as these methods, Iran already has a large enough stockpile of material to create several weapons. They will be forced to reduce their stockpile by 98% over several years.

One minor pitfall of the deal is the 10 year time limit of the deal. After these 10 years, Iran will be able to revert to their previous habits of nuclear production and research, creating weapons grade material and centrifuges. Some fear that they will use the opportunity to rapidly create a nuclear weapon and make the effort put into the deal worth nothing. However, if Iran adheres to the terms of the deal, the rest of the world will be more inclined to give them leeway on doing their own thing, or renew the terms of the deal. If Iran does make the mistake of attempting to create a weapon after the deal ends, the UN will be able to easily reenact the harsh sanctions of the past (Peralta). Iran's economy may not survive the sudden crash from the soon to be massive profits from its vast oil reserves. Current sanctions on Iran prevent it from legitimately exporting its goods on a global scale. Should these be reinstated after a mistake, Iran may have a hard time recovering from the sudden up and sharp decline to its economy. 

The economy of the Middle East has circulated around the oil industry in the late 20th and 21st century. The vast reserves in the region provide nearly 81% of all the world's produced crude oil. This far outweighs all other nations combined production of 19% (OPEC). Of this 81%, 13% has previously been unavailable to the market. In July of 2012 sanctions were placed on Iran's oil production in an attempt to detract funding from Iran's nuclear programs (Sinha). Since then, Iran's economy has stagnated, as oil is their largest source of revenue. With the re-introduction of Iran's oil reserve to the world market, not only will Iran receive some much needed capital, but it will also flood foreign markets will crude oil. This in turn will drop global market oil prices. Gas prices will drop greatly and will boost the economy due to an excess of money previously spent on fuel. The new money will go into leisure activities and all around boost industry. A drop in global oil prices will not only effect the price of our gas. Oil is used in the production of a large portion of all goods we use. Plastics and synthetic products will also experience a large drop in price due to the drop in crude prices (Beattie). This influx of capital to Iran may not be all beneficial to global interests.

It must be understood that Iran already has a large military budget, about 10 billion (Hoff). For a country of Iran's size this is a rather large amount. This is what Iran spends even with its extremely limited GDP. Since Iran is under extreme economic sanctions, they are unable to participate in global trading. With the release of the most extreme of economic sanctions, most notably the end of the oil embargo, Iran will have an initial influx of over $150 billion dollars with an additional $20 billion per year in the future (Hoff). When one factors in this increase in annual profits, Iran's military budget jumps from $10 billion to nearly $15 billion. A five billion dollar jump in military spending may not seem like an obscene amount, but when one looks at what $5 billion can buy it becomes different. With $5 billion you can buy the Chicago Cubs, Toronto Maple Leafs, LA Lakers, and the entirety of the Solomon Islands; while still having $1 billion left over (DiVirgilio). Iran unfortunately will not spend this money on sports and island paradises. The majority of it will likely fund the IRGC, a paramilitary force with an extremely questionable operating basis. IRGC has been known to 'secretly' fund and aid terrorist organizations primarily operating in Israel. With the increase of funding to Iran's military, the IRGC will have an increase of around $3 billion. With this massive increase some fear that the IRGC will pour even more funding to terrorist groups who may then decide to expand operations to the United States or Europe (Hoff). With the recent events throughout Europe, people are on edge and greatly worried about what may happen. 

Though these fears have some basis in fact, I believe that the article stating them does not have sufficient proof to show that the influx will be sent to these military organizations or even reach terrorists through the group. The author of the article is a far leaning right advocate who has worked for Tea Party Republicans (found in her bio). She now is part of a far right leaning think tank that has disputed most claims and policy made by President Obama, no matter how beneficial, to be harmful and weak in the department of foreign policy. The extreme bias of this group forces the reader of the article to question whether or not the group can actually make judgement calls on Iran's foreign policy. The piece is simply fear mongering, using Iran's past and ignoring the fact that the US can easily re-impose sanctions on Iran should any adverse outcomes take place on the part of the military or organizations known to be on its payroll. They do not take into account for the massive scale of possible retaliation possible should Iran put a toe out of line. Iran has other more honorable ways in which to spend the new capital other than on military endeavors. 

With a poverty rate nearing 20% Iran has a crisis on its hands. These people make around $170 per month, while it takes roughly $400 in order for the people to live a comfortable life. This is nearly double the amount most currently receive with their jobs. This deficit restricts the Iranian people from having any excess capital. What happens as a result is simple economics. Any economy relies on the buying power of the people. Iran's buying power has fallen by nearly 73% in recent years (Poverty). Buying power of the people relies on them having enough cash-flow to exceed the needed cost of living. Iranians, however, have a deficit of around $230 per month. Instead of spending the excess money on leisure activity and boosting Iran's economy, the people are forced to live in poverty to remain debt free or go into debt. Without the spending of this leisure money, Iran's economy is not boosted from within. People cannot afford to buy goods, so companies who produce goods cannot afford to pay more employees, unemployed go jobless and make no money, continuing the cycle. Iran needs a boost to its economy; without one, its economy will continue to stagnate. The boost of oil sales with the ease of sanctions will provide much needed revenue to the oil companies who will then hire workers from Iran who will boost the economy from the inside. This will boost the start of Iran's economic recovery. Once it recovers fully, Iran may yet become a global economic power, offering competition for other nations, and creating an essential part of a healthy global economy in addition to helping its own economy to recover. Although Iran will receive extremely large amounts of money from unfrozen monetary assets, they will not receive all of this money. 

Fears have arisen over where the over $100 billion dollars in unfrozen assets will go. Though still an extremely large amount of money, this figure will be cut nearly in half by various debts the government of Iran has come upon in the years since the harsh sanctions were imposed (Zengerle). In addition to this, Iran has not skirted the duties it has under the terms of the deal. All inspections were allowed to take place by the IAEA and they were determined to have turned over all excess enriched uranium to the Russian government (Zengerle). Many expected Iran to attempt to evade the terms of this deal as they have in many previous international agreements over the years (Sinha). The implementation of the deal and Iran's current compliance bodes well for the future, as more sanctions may be eased from Iran's good intentions and adherence to the deal. This in turn will benefit the world economy and in turn the US economy and that of our closest trade partners. Another unexpected turn that many experts expected to happen was Iran's use of unfrozen assets to take direct military action on its nearby enemy of Israel (Zengerle). Iran and Israel have exchanged many threats over the years and are in a constant state of covert attacks and assassinations on both fronts (Sinha). Israel has been suspected of bombing scientists involved in Iran's nuclear program while Iran sponsors organizations involved in terror in Israel. With the tensions between the two nations high, many expected a war between the two. Luckily, this war never broke out and Iran has seemingly adopted a peaceful act in its use of the unfrozen $100 billion. 

Iran's recent deal with the US and other European powers raised many eyebrows. Though the deal claimed to prevent a nuclear armed Iran, critics claimed that it did not prevent it at all, merely contributed to an illusion of safety to those nations who feared that Iran would use nuclear weapons on it. These critics' concerns have been proven groundless and are outweighed by the many benefits of the deal. Iran's current actions in addition with the safeguards and benefits of Europe show how the deal is much of a long needed agreement to aid a struggling power. The starving people of Iran will finally be able to provide for their families with the re-emergence of Iran in the global economy that may prove to grow it into the power seen before the 1979 revolution. The aid to Iran's economy will also help to boost the global economy with its opening of many oil reserves and production centers of Iran. With all of the benefits of the Iran deal, it is a wonder how many worried about how Iran may have skirted its terms.

