The historic nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran dominated media coverage Tuesday, as pundits fell along ideological lines in support of and opposition to the tentative agreement.
President Obama spoke this morning, claiming the deal will halt Iran’s nuclear weapons development in exchange for the repeal of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The responses have been predictably strong on both sides. Here are the five biggest jaw droppers.
1. America has hit rock bottom
The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, known in media and political circles for his support of most U.S. military interventions, suggested the agreement will go down as one of the lowest points in the nation’s history.
“Let us act so historians will say ‘July 14, 2105, was the bottom, the nadir, from which America went on to recover,’” he tweeted.
2. Obama acted out of “desperation”
At an event in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Tuesday, Presidential candidate Donald Trump said, “I don’t understand the president. He dealt from desperation, and he shouldn’t have been desperate.” The real estate mogul went on to criticize the withdrawal of sanctions on Iran, the limitations on access to nuclear sites by inspectors and the exclusion of four American prisoners in the country from the deal.
3. Nuclear arms race in 3 … 2 … 1 …
Fresh off Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that the deal represents “one of the darkest days in history,” Seth Perelman wrote of the “Disastrous Success” of the agreement for the Jerusalem Post.
Perelman opened with an ode to Bob Dylan: “When Bob Dylan sang, ‘There’s no success like failure and failure’s no success at all,’ he might well have described America’s foreign policy.”
“Nowadays, however, there is little likelihood that America has the stomach or even the assured wherewithal for serious intervention,” Perelman continued. “Sadly, that is the takeaway from the pathetic “deal” it would strike with Iran conceding eventual nuclear status to the Islamic Republic, touching off an arms race in the region, raising the possibility of nuclear war and, again, abiding millions of deaths.”
4. Victory for Iran
Heavyweight news aggregator Drudge, which is extremely influential in conservative media, went with a simple, but powerful headline.
5. Arab world, Israel equally outraged
“There’s a lot of anger here,” NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel said on Morning Joe from Tel Aviv, “and not just in Israel. In many capitals in the Arab world, there is deep distrust with this agreement. Basically, the Arab world and Israel both do not think that Iran will abide by the deal, that they will cheat.”
Engel, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, also handicapped the prospects for a new Mideast arms race.
“The U.S. is taking a gamble,” he said, “and for the U.S. there’s relatively low risk. The U.S. is far away … so for the U.S. it’s a gamble with very, let’s say, acceptable downside.
Many papers around the world already went to print when news of the agreement broke, so it will be interesting to see their covers on Wednesday.