But there is an alternative path forward: save the Iran deal. Under the agreement, Iran accepted the most comprehensive transparency measures and limits that a member state of the Nonproliferation Treaty has ever accepted. This model should be accepted by other countries pursuing nuclear-energy programmes. For the international community, therefore, preserving the Iran deal must be a vital first step towards strengthening the nonproliferation regime.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian
While Riyadh and Tehran focus on each other, smaller Gulf countries have cause for concern about the potentially hegemonic tendencies of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. As such, a regional security system should be based on the “zero hegemony” concept. Fostering dialogue and cooperation among Gulf states is necessary for any potential rapprochement.
The record of the JCPOA’s enforcement over the past five years demonstrates that the main threat to any nuclear agreement with Tehran emanates in large part from Washington’s desire to preserve most of its economic leverage over Iran and minimize the actual benefits of sanctions removal for the country. This is basically because the core dispute between the United States and Iran is about the region, not just the nuclear issue. Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018 and the reimposition of unprecedented U.S. sanctions against Iran clearly bear out this assessment, as they were meant to regain and expand U.S. bargaining power against Iran in the hope of securing a better nuclear deal and addressing the regional issues.
[:]Seyed Hossein Mousavian
Five years ago, after years of intensive negotiations, six world powers managed to sign the world’s most comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran. While the agreement was a political one, it was also ratified by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2231. And, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the organization tasked with verifying the agreement’s technical aspects, Iran was fully complying with the deal for about three years, until President Trump withdrew from it in May 2018. In response to the US violations of the nuclear agreement, Iran too reduced some of its commitments. Most recently, on January 4, Iran announced that it had increased its uranium enrichment levels to 20 percent.
[:]Seyed Hossein Mousavian
In the years before the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed, Israel engaged in gruesome acts of terror, assassinating five Iranian nuclear scientists who are now Iran’s revered martyrs. Those included: Ardeshir Hosseinpour, Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad, and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. Israel also attempted to assassinate Fereydon Abbassi, Iran’s head of the Atomic Agency, but it failed.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/iran-nuclear-scientist-killing-biden-opponents-deal
Seyed Hossein Mousavian
The JCPOA was an international agreement between Iran and world powers endorsed by the U.N. Security Council in Resolution 2231. But while the Iranians fully implemented the deal, the United States withdrew from it under the Trump administration and the European Union subsequently failed to fulfill its responsibilities under the agreement. The upshot of the U.S. withdrawal and European complacency was a revival of sanctions at a pace and intensity unprecedented over the past 40 years. This has emboldened Iran’s long-debated strategy of adopting a “Look East” foreign policy, as the JCPOA experience convinced the Iranians that no matter how much goodwill is demonstrated, the West is both unreliable and untrustworthy.
https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/irans-new-doctrine-pivot-to-the-east/
Seyed Hossein Mousavian
With two important presidential elections are coming up in the U.S. and Iran, expectations are that Iran’s next president will be from the Principalists (conservative) faction, just like the result of recent parliamentary elections. The conservative faction’s ascendance is largely due to the fact that Western powers backed away from the JCPOA. The Principalists have always been extremely suspicious of any negotiations with the United States given its dishonest record.That said, rapprochement may is possible, particularly with a change in administration in January 2021. The U.S. must show goodwill in three areas.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian
By destroying the deal, the Trump administration effectively dismantled the most comprehensive mechanism of inspection in the history of the NPT. The US has also presented a draft resolution to the Security Council to extend a UN arms embargo on Tehran. The real US strategy is to “snap back” all UN sanctions on Iran, with full knowledge that Russia and China would not agree to renew the arms embargo, which is a clear violation of the nuclear deal and UN Resolution 2231.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/trumps-iran-policy-dangerous-and-needs-end
Seyed Hossein Mousavian
The Trump administration, seemingly in denial about its own shambolic response to the crisis, tried to blame the pandemic’s high toll in Iran on the incompetence and corruption of the Iranian government. The Iranian leadership indeed made some mistakes in its handling of this public health emergency, such as initially underestimating the threat posed by the virus and failing to close the country’s borders in time. It is, however, impossible to claim that the Iranian government is solely responsible for the devastation the pandemic has caused in the country.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/5/8/sanctions-make-irans-coronavirus-crisis-more-deadly
Seyed Hossein Mousavian
Former US President George W Bush once warned that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three. Through the Iran nuclear deal, agreed between world powers and Iran, Obama laid a new foundation on nuclear disarmament, noting that Iran had agreed “to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear programme in history”.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/road-map-iran-and-us-avoid-all-out-war
