Iran’s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor. Photo: Wikipedia.

How can we explain Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election? True, he did lose the popular vote, but he won in the Electoral College, and will be our next president.

To me, the election showed that despite the initial impression that he was not the “establishment candidate,” a large portion of the American political establishment actually voted for him — or more precisely, they voted against the continuation of the Obama administration.

I believe one of the most important reasons the public didn’t want more of the same was because of Obama’s foreign policy, and particularly as it related to the Iran nuclear deal. Americans rightly saw that this “deal” benefited Iran at the expense of the United States’ regional allies — Israel and Saudi Arabia — and that it undermined and weakened America’s security interests.

So what will happen to the deal now? The agreement was never presented to Congress to be ratified, which means that it does not have any legal standing whatsoever. As such, it is highly likely that the Trump’s administration will want to do away with or make it more stringent where Iran is concerned.

Trump campaigned on his opposition to deal, and I hope he follows through on his promises. Indeed, his own suggestion that John Bolton, a long-time tenacious adversary of the mullahs, might be the next secretary of state could be a clear indication of the incoming administration’s resolve to impose tougher restrictions on Tehran. At any rate, I believe the so-called “agreement” in its present form will soon become obsolete. Good riddance.