Nobel Prize Winning Scientists Support Iran Nuclear Deal

Almost thirty prominent American scientists -six Nobel prize winners- have publicly expressed their support for the agreement that limits Iran’s nuclear program.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, renowned experts praised the nuclear arms control pact that imposes “stricter limitations” that any agreement of nuclear non-proliferation, and that according to the letter “advances the cause of peace and security in the Middle East”.

The scientists also pointed out that this nuclear deal can serve as a “guide” for similar initiatives in the future.

The scientific support for the deal comes while the Obama administration launches an offensive to convince Congress, public opinion and the American allies of the importance of the agreement reached in June in Vienna between five world powers and Iran.

Congress has until mid-September to discuss the agreement. If rejected, it seems unlikely that opponents will have enough votes to override a presidential veto.

The opposition from the Republican Party is a well-known fact, so Obama has the key to prevent rejection by Democrat legislators, which will define part of his legacy and which may begin to redraw the geopolitical chessboard in the Middle East.

The letter signed by 29 scientists was made public just days after Democrat Senator, Chuck Schumer, the number three of the Democrats in the Senate, announced his rejection of the nuclear pact. Schumer is Jewish and his vote was a test to measure the ability to influence the intense Israeli lobby on Capitol Hill against the agreement.

Opponents fear that the lifting of sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear program, will help Tehran strengthen its regional interference and distrust that the agreement will fund what critics call “long-held nuclear ambitions”.

The 29 scientists, however, highlight the monitoring capabilities included in the Vienna pact, including the secret facility. “The agreement includes important verification procedures in the long term that will last at least until 2040 and some indefinitely,” they write in the letter.

Also they extolled the fact that the pact prohibits Iran to conduct research in nuclear weapons, and not only in manufacturing as established by the Treaty of no Nonproliferation of 1968, the most important international framework regarding nuclear weapons.

Among the signatories, there are veterans of nuclear weapons design and former nuclear consultants to the White House and Congress.

Proponents of the letter, according to The New York Times, are Richard Garwin, a physicist who helped design the first hydrogen bomb, and Rush Holt, a physicist and former Democratic congressman who now heads the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest scientific society in the world.

Luis R. Miranda is an award-winning journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief at The Real Agenda. His career spans over 18 years and almost every form of news media. His articles include subjects such as environmentalism, Agenda 21, climate change, geopolitics, globalisation, health, vaccines, food safety, corporate control of governments, immigration and banking cartels, among others. Luis has worked as a news reporter, on-air personality for Live and Live-to-tape news programs. He has also worked as a script writer, producer and co-producer on broadcast news. Read more about Luis.