Pooya Stone

Earlier this week, Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, warned the United States that there is now a race on for nuclear arms. He also said that a competition to modernise nuclear weapons is staring too.

The United Nations General Assembly was holding a high-level meeting to promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons during which Araghchi made the comments.

Iran Focus

London, 27 Sep – The future of the Iran nuclear deal is currently very uncertain. Many believe that the deal should be scrapped as it is one-sided and has too many concessions in favour of the Iranian regime. Only last week at the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump said that the nuclear deal was an “embarrassment” to the United States.

He has a deadline of 15th October to decide whether he will grant the Iranian regime compliance with the nuclear deal. If he does not certify Iran compliance, Congress with have sixty days to decide whether it will reapply crippling sanctions that were lifted as a result of the signing of the nuclear deal.

Iran Focus

London, 26 Sep – With roughly two weeks until the White House has to decide whether to (again!) certify Iran as compliant with the 2015 nuclear deal (despite all evidence against), all eyes are on Donald Trump.

Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, the former general manager of Al Arabiya News Channel, wrote an op-ed for Arab News in which he explained that if you want to know how Trump will act on Iran, you have you watch how he is reacting to North Korea.

Indeed, that is what the Iranian mullahs are doing.

Al-Rashed explains how the current North Korean nuclear problem was partly caused by the lax 2015 Iranian nuclear deal which was not too lenient, ergo why Iran is so happy to break the deal without fear of repercussions.

Iran Focus

London, 26 Sep – There is ever-growing speculation that the Iranian Regime is providing North Korea with the funds to develop its nuclear programme, in spite of the heavy sanctions against the rogue Asian country, and Donald Trump appears to confirm this.

On Saturday, September 23, Trump tweeted: “Iran just test-fired a ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel. They are also working with North Korea.”

This collaboration on nuclear and missile technology has not been announced by either Iran or North Korea but many in the Western intelligence community see this as an “unquestionable fact”.

Iran Focus

London, 26 Sep – If the US really wants to increase pressure on the Iranian Regime, they need to convince the rest of the world to join with them and pass international sanctions on the Regime and their Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

In October, the Iranian nuclear deal comes up for review once again and if Donald Trump’s tough rhetoric comes to pass then Iran should be declared noncompliant because of the mountain of evidence that suggests they are not keeping to the deal.

This could mean issuing fresh sanctions against Iran (something that the Trump administration has hardly been shy about) or reintroducing ones lifted by the nuclear deal, but even the action of declaring Iran noncompliant could give the US essential leverage and bring the mullahs back to the negotiating table.