Iran Must Provide Necessary Access To IAEA: Malley
The US Special Envoy for Iran repeated calls that Iran give unhindered access to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.
The US Special Envoy for Iran repeated calls that Iran give unhindered access to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.
Robert Malley made the comments after meeting with the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, which Malley called “productive”, during which they discussed Grossi’s recent trip to Tehran.
In a Tweet, Malley said, “I welcomed his efforts to engage Iran on nuclear issues of concern to the IAEA. We stressed that Iran should follow through on its commitments made to the IAEA and should facilitate any access deemed necessary by the agency.”
Grossi reportedly reached an agreement with the authorities of the Islamic Republic on the visit earlier this month, regarding further inspections by the IAEA. However, the outcome of those talks is yet to be seen.
Many commentators inside and outside Iran have been skeptical of the visit, which came after the UN watchdog’s inspectors announced that enriched uranium particles with 84% purity had been found at Fordow site near Tehran.
Although Iran has denied enriching uranium with a concentration of more than 60%, Western diplomats say what prevented the adoption of a resolution by the IAEA Board of Governors against Tehran was Grossi’s recent agreement with the Islamic Republic.
During his visit, Grossi had said it was an "issue of necessity to have a very deep, serious, systematic dialogue with Iran”.
Mansoor Haqiqatpoor also suggested that "radical elements" should no longer be on the negotiating team. "I hope the radicals' power in Iran will be reduced. I guess [President Ebrahim] Raisi has realized how radicals can do harm to Iran's foreign policy. They have prevented the talks from being fruitful."
Speaking to conservative Nameh News website, Haqiqatpoor said, "I hope the officials have realized that radicals should not be put in charge of decision-making as they will push Iran into international isolation."
He added that the negotiations can lead to positive results if Iran’s team changes its approach. I suggest that even if Araqchi is not put in charge of the negotiating team, he should at least be an adviser to the team."
Araqchi was Former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif's deputy, and he led Iran's nuclear negotiators under the Rouhani administration until mid-2021.
While some say that talks in the first half of 2021 under Araqchi were yielding results, the hardliner team under Raisi, who assumed office in August of that year, dragged out talks with the West until the diplomatic effort reached an impasse last September.
Meanwhile, in an interview with centrist Agahi-ye No magazine, former moderate vice President Es'haq Jahangiri said that former US President Donald Trump withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA and reimposition of sanctions dealt a hard blow to Iran's economy.
He said when Trump decision pushed “all our friends in various countries” to distance themselves from Iran. China which was cooperating with Iran on the Tehran-Mashhad rail line, was the first country to stop its projects and pull out of Iran. Then, the French energy company Total said they cannot continue working with Iran. China was Total's trade partner, and the Chinese should have continued working, but they too said they cannot go on with projects to expand the Persian Gulf gas fields.
"From 2018, under the circumstances we changed tracks from the country's development to helping with the people's livelihood. All we wanted to do was protect the people and help them to survive. I was one of the biggest defenders of domestic production, but I knew that without international trade we could not succeed," Jahangiri said.
At the same time, while many politicians in Iran have pinned their hopes on a possible breakthrough after IAEA chief Rafael Grossi's visit to Iran in early March, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization told the press on Tuesday that he is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the future.
He said the IAEA was supposed to investigate nuclear traces in Marivan area where Uranium-236 has been traced. Kamalvandi said the trace dates to old activities by Russians in the area. But instead of looking for answers for their original questions, the IAEA inspectors raised new questions.
He charged that world powers do not want Iran to gain nuclear power and benefit from its economic, industrial and technological aspects. However, he did not say that Europe and the United States, as well as Iran's neighbors in the region are scared by the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons.
He also ignored the fact that Iran’s uranium enrichment closer to weapons grade has led to more international concerns. He also acknowledged that resources spent on the nuclear program have adversely affected Iran's economy.
“They are so far along now, I am not sure at this point they are stoppable,” said Senator John Thune (R-SD) on the sidelines of the Senate weekly bipartisan luncheon on Tuesday.
Being the Whip for the Republican Party in the Senate, he is known to be articulate and measured in his response but when asked about Biden administration policy on Iran, Senator Thune did not mince words.
“A lot of things should have been done earlier [by the Biden administration]. I think like a lot of other national security issues, this administration has been too late to the game and in many cases, they turned a blind eye or a deaf ear to the challenges they face out there,” he said.
Democrats in the Senate have been dismissive about the news of the near weapons grade enrichment by the clerical regime. Asked if Iran’s ability to enrich uranium at 84% purity concerns him, Senator Bernie Sander said it is does but did not elaborate.
Other democratic senators in US Capitol hallways this week were not so eager to talk about it. ”I think we made a big mistake during the previous administration by pulling out of the nuclear deal with Iran,” said Senator Tom Carper (D-DE). “If we remained in that deal, we would not be in this situation.”
Former President Donald Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) almost five years ago and the some Democrats have been sticking to some version of Senator Carper’s sentiments ever since. It sounds like an excuse and it might be a good one for the domestic audience, but it’s not a strategy, nor is it a policy.
The fact is that Iran’s gradual progress in enriching ever higher than what was agreed in the JCPOA has seriously worried the West and regional countries such as Israel and oil-producing Arab countries in Iran’s neighborhood..
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol surprised Americans in January when he said that if the US does not deploy back its tactical nukes to the peninsula, South Korea can “acquire its own nukes”.
Coincidentally, Saudi’s energy minister Prince Abuldaziz bin Salman on the same date told a group of attendees at a mining and industry conference in Riyadh that Saudi Arabia is planning to enrich its domestic stockpile of uranium to ensure that it will be able to “complete the entire fuel cycle.”
Enriching uranium to weapons grade is one thing, putting it in a warhead attached to a ballistic missile that is capable of delivering it to medium and long range targets in a matter of minutes, is another thing.
When asked if the US can realistically slow the Iranian ICBM delivery for nukes, Senator Bill Cassidy told Iran International: “I don’t know if they can stop the formation of a bomb, maybe the need is to stop them from being able to deliver it.”
Stopping Iran from its march towards weapons grade enrichment “exceeds what I know as to our capabilities,” he added.
That means the Republicans believe Iran’s nuclear program is anything but contained. If Iran moves to 90% enrichment capacity, then the million dollar question remains: who can stop the likes of Saudis and South Koreans from going down the same path?
