Playing hardball with P5+1, Iran rejected the idea of meeting informally to discus how to restart the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], after former president Donald Trump cancelled U.S. involvement May 8, 2018. Iran plays games as usual, the typical Persian way of negotiating. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif played all kinds of games with former Secretary of State John Kerry in 2015, before coughing up $1.6 billion in cash and $150 billion in sanctions relief. Iran made away like bandits badly out negotiating Kerry to get the JCPOA. Zarif was so clever the way he worked Kerry, someone jaded by affluence and a career in politics he didn’t know what hit him. President Joe Biden, 78, wants to revise the JCPOA to stick it to Trump, not because it’s good for the country or benefits U.S. national security in any way.
Can you image negotiating a nuclear pact in which there’s no verification of Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities? Under the JCPOA, Kerry agreed to Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] inspections only at facilities approved by the Iranian government. Trump realized early on that there was no way of knowing whether Iran was in compliance with the JCPOA agreement. “Considering the recent actions and statements by the United States and three European powers, Iran does not consider this the time to hold an informal meetings with these countries, which was proposed by the EU foreign policy chief,” Iran Foreign Policy spokesman Saeed Khatibzeadeh said. Iran just can’t stop playing games, gaslighting the P5+1 while they cheat on uranium enrichment. Iran claims they only enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, the same thing said by North Korea.
Today’s attack in the Strait of Hormuz on an Israeli transport ship proves that Iran won’t stop its state-sponsored terrorism anytime soon. Biden’s overtures to rejoin the JCPOA say more about sticking it to Trump than whether it helps U.S. national security. Biden looks poised to sanction Saudi Arabia’s 35-year-old ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while he tries to make amends with Tehran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demands that the U.S. end all sanctions first before Iran would consider returning to any informal talks on returning to the JCPOA. EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell wants to hold an informal meetings to gauge Iran’s seriousness of returning to strict uranium enrichment limits under the JCPOA. Since Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, Iran has pushed the petal-to-the-metal enriching uranium at a feverish pitch hoping it wins Iran more concessions.
Biden has shown that rejoining the JCPOA is about sticking it to Trump anyway that he can. No one in the EU thinks Iran will maintain compliance with the original agreement, since the IAEA never had a way of verifying secret military enrichment facilities. White House officials say that Iran must return to full compliance with the JCPOA before any discussion takes place about ending U.S. sanctions. Iran sees it the opposite. U.S. officials must end all sanctions before Iran rejoins the agreement. One way or another, Iran will continue to play games until Secretary of State Tony Blinken gives in, ending all U.S. sanctions. It’s ironic that Blinken wants to end sanctions on Iran—the Mideast’s biggest sponsor of state terrorism—while applying them to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Biden needs to get his priorities straight.
IAEA Board of Governors wants to refrain from criticizing Iran for its decision to pull back from IAEA inspections. “If the IAEA’s Board of Governors adopts a resolution against Iran, we will show an appropriate reaction,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, reported by Iran’s semi-official IRNA news agency. When it comes to verifying Iran’s uranium enrichment activities, the IAEA knows that it never had access to Iran’s top secret military sites, making compliance with the JCPOA impossible. Whatever happens with Iran, there’s far more concern about Blinken alienating Russian President Vladimir Putin or Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Biden and Blinken have no problem sanctioning Russia and Saudia Arabia, while lifting sanctions on Iran who’s openly admitted violating the JCPOA uranium limits. Khamenei sees nothing wrong with enriching uranium to 60%.
Biden and Blinken must get their priorities straight, ending sanctions with Iran while they ramp them up with Russia and Saudi Arabia. No one knows better than Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman what it’s like to fight a proxy war with Iran, whose Yemen-based Houthi rebels have fired rockets at Saudi Arabia for the last six years. “Negotiation or a resolution” by the IAEA board of governors of the United States to “end its illegal unilateral sanctions and return to its commitments,” said Khatibzadeh. There’s little the U.S. can do short of ending sanctions to get Iran back to the table. Biden thinks that his role as U.S. commander-in-chief gives him added leverage with world leaders. When Joe looks honestly at U.S. standing in world affairs, there’s little trust that the EU has with the U.S. heading Western alliance, let along the “Free World.” Biden better wake up before it’s too late.
