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2 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW After 10-hour wait for wind, Dustin Johnson leads British ... Buddhist lama from Bhutan to visit Ashland ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: The power of myth ... After 10-hour wait for wind, Dustin Johnson leads British ... Buddhist lama from Bhutan to visit Ashland ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: The power of myth ... COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: The United States and Iran make a deal Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jul. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Jul. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Thirty-three years after the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and a little over 13 years since being labeled a member of the Axis of Evil by President George W. Bush, Iran took a major step this week toward joining the family of nations by reaching a deal on its nuclear program. In what will be hailed as a master stroke in foreign policy for President Obama, the deal blocks all non-covert mechanisms whereby Iran might find a pathway toward manufacturing a nuclear bomb. It stops any efforts by Iran to obtain weapons-grade plutonium. It prevents it from developing enriched uranium. And it neutralizes the threat of Iran building a bomb in two to three months, which, according to the conservative press (as well as Israel's Benjahmin Netanyahu) was the likely timeline for nuclear capability. Iran will also be subjected to ongoing oversight by the IAEA to ensure that it complies with the principles set forth in the agreement. Despite the gunboat diplomacy and belligerent rhetoric that it has been subject to at the hands of orthodox politicians in the West, Iran has more in common with the U.S. than Americans have been led to believe. Although currently living under an aging theocratic leader, Iran is a pragmatic regional power, with great capacity for reason and statecraft. Its influence in its neighborhood makes it a common denominator in the nuclear negotiations that brought all of the global players to the table in the P5+1. On the front lines in the war against ISIS, America and Iran have never felt closer. That, combined with the lifting of international sanctions, which will allow Iran to export oil as well as to import weapons (albeit weapons without the potency of a nuclear arsenal), is the main reason why China and Russia showed up to the table despite serious existing ruptures in their own relationships to the West. America's most important allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Israel, are balking at the deal, which only lasts for 15 years. That's an eternity in terms of Middle East-U.S. relations, but from a Saudi and Israeli perspective, it's not long at all. For Netanyahu, the agreement amounts to a tacit admittance that the U.S. is willing to use soft power in response to Iran's nuclear program — this implies that America is unwilling to go to war in the future in order to protect Jerusalem. For the Saudis, any agreement between the U.S. and Iran is seen as an extension of Tehran's regional influence, which is already a matter of grave concern to the Sunni-dominated Saudi leadership. But the Islamic Republic is in no position to take on both Israel and Saudi Arabia at any point in the future; in fact, the slowing of any nuclear process puts Iran at an even more serious disadvantage against any neighbor that wishes to reign her in. And, within hours of solidifying the Iran nuclear agreement, the White House was reportedly on the phone to Netanyahu, pledging additional U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel. From a U.S. perspective, this is all a big win. Iran is neutralized as a near-term threat. Diplomacy is seen to be working, both in terms of the immediate shared concerns for US-Iranian interests around Isis and radical Islam, and by the world powers as a whole. A difficult relationship with the current Israeli prime minister is contained by new strategic initiatives. Oil is made even cheaper when Tehran begins exporting. Provided all goes well, America has managed to find a foothold in a region that has historically been one of the most barren and inhospitable to our interests. The deal creates tangled diplomatic web, to be sure. But for now, the U.S. seems best positioned to become the spider. Obama has scored yet another major logistical victory. So much for the lame duck phase of his presidency. Next stop, North Korea? Jeffrey Gillespie's writing has appeared in the Santa Fean and Art Collector magazines, the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week. He lives in Ashland. 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