Complexity does not describe the current state of Iran’s nuclear program; The situation has become much more complicated, and every second, the problem is getting worse for the regime. Many of the regime’s officials are now speaking about the unreversible consequences of its decision to expand its nuclear program.
Ali Khezrian, the spokesman for the regime’s Article 90 Commission, announced that the commission would not hold a meeting on Sunday with Foreign Minister Hossain Amir Abdollahian and the head of the regime’s Atomic Energy Organization over the nuclear talks and the resolution of the IAEA Board of Governors.
He said: “They have been given a week to attend the commission meeting. Otherwise, the case will be referred to the judiciary for investigation.”
This conflict between the regime’s different factions shows that the head of the regime has decided to continue its nuclear program uninterrupted, even not considering the warnings of those who seek to save the regime from more challenging decisions by the international community.
On June 20, Reuters reported that the latest report on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows that the regime is preparing to increase its uranium enrichment at the Fordow plant.
Reuters wrote: “Iran is escalating its uranium enrichment further by preparing to use advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Fordow site that can more easily switch between enrichment levels, a United Nations nuclear watchdog report seen by Reuters on Monday showed.”
One of the concerns about Iran’s nuclear program was highlighted in the latest revelation by the New York Times about the construction of new underground tunnels at the Natanz nuclear site.
On June 17, the Times announced that the Iranian regime was digging an extensive network of underground tunnels south of the Natanz nuclear site. According to the report, the Iranian regime is digging tunnels deep in the mountains resistant to bombing and electronic warfare attacks.
Fearing the consequences of the Time’s revelations, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the regime’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesman, responded on the same day, saying that he had already informed the IAEA about the construction of these underground tunnels.
He added that although the regime has no obligation to provide extra information considered by the IAEA’s safeguards, it has informed the Agency since the beginning of the construction to relocate the activities of the Karaj Factory to the Natanz site.
But it seems that the regime’s excuses are no longer satisfying the world community, even the countries which had refused to react to the regime’s nuclear program over the past years.
The representative of the United Arab Emirates in the IAEA, Hamad al-Kaab, has called on the Iranian regime to cooperate in the best way with the IAEA. Al-Kaabi has called on the regime to ensure that its nuclear program is peaceful and assure the countries of the region and the world powers.
On the other hand, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US government would increase the economic pressure on the regime, and there would be more sanctions in the future. He added that the measures taken by the regime regarding enrichment and the removal of the IAEA surveillance cameras are not fundamentally helpful.
In addition to Sullivan, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has stated that its government will continue to impose sanctions on the regime without an agreement on the JCPOA.
Shortly before Blinken’s remarks, the United States announced some sanctions against some individuals and companies that cooperated with the regime.
Meanwhile, in a hollow show of power, Ali Bagheri Kani, the regime’s representative in the nuclear talks, acknowledged Tehran would not withdraw from the redlines that the regime’s supreme leader drew in the field of the nuclear program.
What the regime here fears is not the loss of the nuclear program but its internal consequences, which reveals its weakness to people, consequently adding to society’s restiveness. While many of its officials, even Khamenei, have expressed constantly that any retreat will weaken the regime’s repressive apparatus.
Earlier, the IAEA director-general implicitly pointed to the failure of the JCPOA talks, stating that the regime had not answered the IAEA inquiries about the uranium origin discovered at its three undeclared nuclear facilities, leading to a standoff.
A review of the news clearly shows that the regime’s decisions and actions on its nuclear program have brought the Vienna talks to a standstill and put the West and the international community on the verge of pursuing other solutions.
