Hey, why not? We’ve given everything else away — why not just set up the world’s best nuclear reactors in Iran and just trust the mullahs not to build bombs? The Associated Press got its hands on a draft of the agreement being negotiated between Iran and the P5+1 Western nations, a codicil of which requires the West to provide cutting-edge nuclear technology in exchange for a promise not to use it for military purposes.

The United States and other nations negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran are ready to offer high-tech reactors and other state-of-the-art equipment to Tehran if it agrees to crimp programs that can make atomic arms, according to a confidential document obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The draft document — one of several technical appendices meant to accompany the main text of any deal — has dozens of bracketed text where disagreements remain. Technical cooperation is the least controversial issue at the talks, and the number of brackets suggest the sides have a ways to go not only on that topic but also more contentious disputes with little more than a week until the June 30 deadline for a deal. …

The West has always held out the prospect of providing Iran peaceful nuclear technology in the nearly decade-long international diplomatic effort designed to reduce Tehran’s potential ability to make nuclear weapons. But the scope of the help now being offered in the draft may displease U.S. congressional critics who already argue that Washington has offered too many concessions at the negotiations.

Even with this collapse, Iran upped the ante today anyway:

Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said no commitments will be fulfilled unless sanctions are “lifted immediately” and apparently reeled back from agreements nuclear negotiators have made.

“All economic, financial and banking sanctions, implemented either by the United Nations Security Council, the United States Congress or the administration, must be lifted immediately when the deal is signed,” Khamenei said in a speech Tuesday. “Unlike the insistence from the Americans, we do not accept long-term limitations of 10, 12 years, and we told them how many years [of] limitations we are ready to accept.”

The “inspection of our military sites is out of the question and is one of our red lines,” Khamenei added.

As long as he was on the subject, Khameini also refused to allow Iran to stop R&D for a decade, as Obama promised the agreement would do:

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday ruled out freezing sensitive nuclear work in the country for a long time and said sanctions imposed on it should be lifted as soon it reaches a final deal with major powers, state TV reported.

The six – Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States – want Iran to commit to a verifiable halt of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear development work as part of a landmark atomic deal they aim to reach by June 30.

They are offering in exchange relief from sanctions that have crippled the oil exporter’s economy.

“Freezing Iran’s Research and Development (R&D) for a long time like 10 or 12 years is not acceptable,” Khamenei said in a speech broadcast live.

So let’s recap. The deal, as its direction seems to be at the moment, would deliver the latest in nuclear technology to an extremist regime which also happens to be the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. In exchange, the Iranians won’t allow IAEA inspections, will continue to do R&D on nuclear weapons, and will get tons of new cash to fuel its wars in the region for its brand of radical Shi’ite Islam. What a great deal! For Khameini, that is.

Omri Ceren provides some analysis on just how good a deal Khameini will be getting:

Some country in the P5+1 will be helping the Iranians develop next-generation centrifuges in a facility impenetrable to American and Israeli bombs. Conversely, any country that wants to sabotage that development will be unable to do so, because the program will be protected and maintained by a major power.

As the centrifuges are being developed they’ll be spinning non-nuclear elements, but once they’re perfected the Iranians will be able to use them to enrich uranium. The international community will literally be investing in helping Iran achieve a zero breakout.

A couple of obvious points. First, it means the P5+1 will be actively providing the Iranians with the tools to break out while a deal is in place. The Iranians will already have 300kg of 3.67% uranium on hand, and they’ll be able to scale up production as they need because the JCPOA lets them keep 5,000 centrifuges enriching uranium at Natanz and lets them keep another 10,000 centrifuges in storage available to be installed. They can bring low enriched material to Fordow and quickly enrich it to weapons-grade levels in the next-generation centrifuges they’ll have developed with P5+1 assistance. Second – again – it means that the P5+1 will be actively ensuring that Iran will have the technology to go nuclear at will the instant the deal expires. The technology the Iranians learn to develop at Fordow will be applied on a mass scale.

Contrast this with the deal Moammar Qaddafi got. In late 2003 and early 2004, Qaddafi surrendered his nuclear technology to the US and pledged to cooperate in counterterrorism operations. Seven years later, the US and its allies in Europe bombed his regime out of existence and left him to be killed in a horrendous manner, while we turned Libya into a failed state and a playground for ISIS, al-Qaeda, and any number of terror networks. Looks like the Iranians learned a lesson from that deal. I wonder how many others have as well.

Smart power.