This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, May 12, 2017.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The Iran Nuclear Deal was lambasted by our current president

when he was a candidate, but the rhetoric surrounding the deal has changed.

Cato Scholars John Glazer and Ben Friedman argue that's evidence that the plan is working

to lower the temperature with respect to Iran's activities in the region.

President Trump told the AIPAC convention when he was campaigning that the first thing he would do

as president would be to tear up the terrible

deal with the Ron obviously it's not the first second or even the hundred thing

that he did as president he has kept it the State Department Rex Tillerson

recently announced they're doing a review of the deal,

but the criticism has sort of quieted or at least shifted.

Now they complain about different things.

Trump said recently, well Iran's compliant but not

complying with the spirit of the deal because they're still supporting terrorism.

Secretary of State Tillerson said Iran is complying with the deal but the deal failed to stop

them from their ambitions to get nuclear weapons.

So the terms of debate have shifted in some ways. I think that's a testament to the success of the deal in accomplishing its aim, which is the control of the nuclear weapons program.

So the deal didn't do things that were not a part of the deal? Is that basically what they're saying?

That's one of the primary tactics of the critics of Iran is to complain that the nuclear deal, which was a strict nonproliferation agreement, didn't cover things

like support for terrorism or meddling in Iraq or what have you.

All right.

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