As we’ve pointed out over and over, the Obama administration, and to a great extent the toolish [mc_name name=’Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001071′ ], have been relentlessly lying about the nature of the Iran nuclear talks. The agreement that is being considered by Congress does nothing but lock in the forward progress of Iran’s nuclear weapons program while simultaneously removing sanctions. Not only does the agreement do nothing to stop Iran’s progress towards a nuclear weapon if it follows the agreement, it does nothing to punish Iran if it cheats.

Back in April. Obama made this dishonest defense of the agreement:

Third, it provides the best possible defense against Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear weapon in secret. Iran has agreed to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history. International inspectors will have unprecedented access not only to Iranian nuclear facilities, but to the entire supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear program — from uranium mills that provide the raw materials, to the centrifuge production and storage facilities that support the program. If Iran cheats, the world will know. (actually all of this was demonstrably false at the time. Iran has said that it will not allow snap inspections and it will not allow inspections of military sites.)

In return for Iran’s actions, the international community has agreed to provide Iran with relief from certain sanctions — our own sanctions, and international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. This relief will be tied to the steps Iran takes to adhere to the deal. And if Iran violates the deal, sanctions can be snapped back into place. Meanwhile, other American sanctions on Iran — for its support of terrorism, its human rights abuses, and its ballistic missile program — will be fully enforced.

Now we know that UN sanctions will not return even if Iran cheats.

The Obama administration is trying to sell a nuclear deal with Iran to skeptical Arabs, Israelis and U.S. lawmakers by saying that United Nations sanctions will be restored automatically if the Iranians are caught cheating.

Not so, say the Russians, who have one of five vetoes in the 15-member UN Security Council.

“There can be no automaticity, none whatsoever” in reimposing UN sanctions if Iran violates the terms of an agreement to curb its nuclear program, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told Bloomberg News on Wednesday. He didn’t elaborate.

While the Obama administration maintains that Russia agreed “in principle” to the need for a sanctions “snapback” mechanism if Iran fails to comply with the agreement now being negotiated in final form, the Russian government has offered no corroboration.

Instead, President Vladimir Putin on April 13 lifted a ban on exporting missile defense systems to Tehran, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said lifting all the sanctions against Iran is good business for Russia.

This “deal” is a fraud. The negotiations are a fraud. Obama has sat on his hands while Iran became a nuclear power and now is going to demand that we give him credit for slowing down their progress.