Iran deal never signed, Rush reveals

Rush Limbaugh

That Iran deal? The one that Democrats and Europeans claimed the United States had to honor or the nation would lose its reputation?

The one that President Trump essentially tossed into the waste this week?

Never signed.

Never a treaty.

Never even an "executive agreement."

The details were dug out by talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, and Friday he discussed them on his program.

Online, he posted an image of a State Department letter to Mike Pompeo, now secretary of State but a member of the House of Representatives back in 2015.

"The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document. The JCPOA reflects political commitments between Iran, the P5+1 (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China), and the European Union. As you know, the United States has a long-standing practice of addressing sensitive problems in negotiations that culminate in political commitments."

Limbaugh said some one should "tell that idiot Colbert 'cause he was out calling it a treaty and how could Trump just unilaterally cancel it."

"You realize the folly of this? Something that the Iranians didn't sign, the Obama administration said that doesn't matter! Whether they agree to it and abide by it is what matters. Why would they abide by it if they didn't sign it?" he said.

He notes the Obama administration said the success will depend on the "extensive verification measures" but not only was Trump able to point out the flaws there, the document that includes the verification procedures, Limbaugh said, "has no weight."

He said the concept was "nothing more than a collection of nations making promises" – and those change with politics, which, in the U.S., typically change with administrations.

"So there was never any force of law. There was never any treaty. It was, as I said yesterday, nothing more than Obama’s personal political preferences that nobody had the audacity to disagree with because he's the first African-American president. But I just wanted to stipulate it wasn't signed; it wasn’t ratified. The Iranians never signed it. It was never anything that was actually enforceable – and add to the insult of this, we paid them $150 billion to get them to ostensibly behave."