Iran Focus
London, 9 Jul – Prominent Iranian and US experts on the Iran nuclear crisis on Wednesday warned that the world powers were offering Tehran too many concessions in the ongoing nuclear negotiations.
Key Western goals in the negotiations – including one to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons capabilities – have been abandoned, said former US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Amb. Robert G. Joseph.
An online panel was held on Wednesday which took questions by Twitter. The panel included former White House National Security Council senior staffer and adjunct Professor, Raymond Tanter; Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) US Representative Office; and R. Bruce McColm, President of the Institute for Democratic Strategies.
Iran has a poor track record in coming clean about its nuclear capability, Joseph said, meaning that there is no “baseline knowledge for understanding if 12 months is a meaningful deadline – America has no idea how far Iran has advanced”.
The UN nuclear agency has been struggling to make progress in its investigations for years after constant stonewalling from Tehran, he said.
Joseph warned that there were “unknowns” surrounding the excess of enriched uranium that Iran possesses.
“Will it be sent out of the country? What will Iran do to make it secure? These are questions that we do not have answers to. It is unknown how long it could take for Iran to break out”.
Spot inspections by international monitors at any Iranian site and interviews with any persons affiliated with the sites are “crucial”, Joseph said.
Iran wants to provide “managed access” only at some sites. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ruled out inspections at Iran’s military facilities.
North Korea will eventually pass its extensive ballistic missile knowledge to Iran, allowing Tehran to obtain the delivery methods for a nuclear arsenal, Tanter told the conference.
Iran’s support for terrorism, its missile delivery research, and the repression of its people should be factored into any nuclear deal, he argued.
Tanter said the Obama administration increasingly looked as though it is prepared to accept any deal in order to avoid having to use force. Tehran is therefore increasing its “demands for concessions, and America keeps granting them in return”.
Jafarzadeh warned that Iran continues to ban international inspectors from visiting nuclear sites. One problem is Iran’s continual “cheating”, he said. He argued that Tehran has different methods for cheating. “They provoke delays, tamper with evidence, lie until they are eventually exposed, distract authorities and promise cooperation that they do not follow through with”.
He said it is unacceptable that Iran can deny requests by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its sites. US President Barack Obama should make sure this doesn’t continue, he said.
He claimed that there are at least a dozen suspect sites and questioned why they are not being looked at. “How can future problems be resolved if they can’t even resolve the current and existing ones”?
The deal under discussion between Iran and the P5+1 – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – is aimed at curbing Tehran’s most sensitive nuclear work for a decade or more, in exchange for relief from sanctions that have slashed Iran’s oil exports and crippled its economy.
