Dear Editor:

The contest between Iran and the USA has been much in the news over the past several years; this has been caused by President Trump's pulling the USA out of the Iran Nuclear, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA. Contrary to Trump's "worst deal I've ever seen," the JCPOA was excellent; it blocked every possible avenue for Iran to make a nuclear explosive. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Bibi, the congressional GOP, and the Trump Administration support leaving the deal. I should point out that Israel has the third largest nuclear arsenal, after Russia and the USA.

As a physicist, retired after 38 years from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with multi-year assignments to a EURATOM laboratory in Italy, DOE in D.C., and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria; I've studied the nuclear programs of Iran and Israel almost since their beginnings. My field for 50 years, even in retirement, is nuclear safeguards, nonproliferation, and arms control.

Most of my 38 years at LANL involved working with the IAEA, often called the United Nations' Nuclear Watchdog, that inspects the nuclear facilities of all countries which have signed the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear weapons (NPT). Iran was of the first signers of the NPT; Israel is one of only three nations that have never signed the NPT. The other two are India and Pakistan. North Korea did sign the treaty and was inspected by the IAEA for several years; it is now out of the NPT.

We have put severe economic sanctions on Iran that have hurt the Iranian people very badly. The other five members of the JCPOA are trying to preserve the agreement, but the political and fiscal power of the USA makes this very difficult.

You can tell from this note that I strongly support the Iran Nuclear Deal. The opinions are mine, however, the facts herein are correct.

Dr. T. Douglas Reilly

Los Alamos, New Mexico

and summer Sprucewold resident.