The Nuclear Deal is Working

Yukiya Amano of Japan, a UN official tracking Iran's Nuclear Program | The Guardian

Amidst all the horrible news concerning foreign affairs (thanks North Korea!), the UN has released a report that The Guardian, The New York Times, and the American Conservative have all covered with a positive air, except for slight nudge towards Trump.

Not only has Iran complied with the JCPOA, but the country has actually housed less of the substances that the agreement outlined. For example, the stockpile of heavy water is under the agreed amount, as is the uranium stockpile. This agreement was made in return for relief from harsh sanctions on the country.

As one who has a personal connection to Iran, I find the report to be a relief, and I agree with the American Conservative's claims that this report is "not surprising," followed by the New York Times mentioning that the findings are "unsurprising."

However, the report isn't all positive. All three sources have related the findings back to Trump. Trump has been putting pressure on the senate to withdraw from the agreement. He has even claimed that, had it been up to him, he would've found Iran "noncompliant" months ago.

This is quite concerning to me. How can one claim that a country that is abiding by preset rules is noncompliant? Despite this, Trump seems to be "checked and balanced" by not only the legislative branch on this matter, but even the five other major countries that are involved in this agreement.

Is it really right for the US to pull out of an agreement that Russia, Germany, England, France and China have all warned would result in isolation of the US on this subject? Does it make sense to investigate a matter of compliance? And finally, how does the system of the government checking itself play into this?