“How bad is the Iran deal? Let’s count the ways,” by Amir Taheri, New York Post, September 5, 2015:

A fatwa that doesn’t exist, a wish list that no one signed, a resolution that contradicts the wish list, a protocol that no one has seen…

These are the elements with which President Obama claims he has concocted a strategy to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions and stop it exporting murder and mayhem.

Supposedly issued by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, the fatwa declares nuclear weapons as “illicit” (haram) in Islam.

Obama cites it as “proof” that Iran does not intend to build a bomb. The president has never said he has seen the fatwa, which, in any case, would have no legal or religious weight.

However, those who refer to the fatwa, including some mullahs, always credit Obama as the source of their information. In the 18th century, Mullah Sadra liked to say that “you will see only if you believe.” He has a disciple in Obama.

The wish list is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 159-page tome issued in Vienna last July after two years of talks between an Iranian delegation and the so-called P5+1 group of big powers led by the US.

“This is neither an agreement nor a treaty,” writes Dr. Saberi Ansari, Iran’s legal advisor during the talks. “An agreement or a treaty is distinguished by the fact that its contents are binding on contracting parties. This is not the case with JCPOA.

For example, JCPOA envisages moves that ought to be made by the United Nations or the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, it is not in Iran’s or the P5+1’s gift to decide for the UN and the IAEA.”

What we have instead is a list of things that participants in the talks wish would happen.

However, the Iranian side does not feel bound by the wish list. It has not even been presented at the Council of Ministers headed by President Hassan Rouhani. Ministers have read about it in the press. More interestingly, there is no official Persian translation of the text.  SOURCE