Resuming talks in Vienna to restart the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], Iran announced Tuesday that it was adding 1,000 advanced centrifuges at its underground Natanz facility to enrich uranium to 60%, one small step from weapons grade fuel. Members of the P5+1, including the U.S., U.K, France, Germany, Russia and China, have practically stood on their heads to resume the JCPOA after former President Donald Trump cancelled U.S. involvement May 8, 2018 returning to economic and travel sanctions. Trump cancelled U.S. involvement in the JCPOA when Iran went hog wild with state-sponsored terrorism, using Yemen’s Houthi rebels to start a proxy war with Saudi Arabia. When Iran breached the verification provision of the JCPOA, there was not way of know whether they stopped uranium enrichment at secret nuclear sites not subject to inspections.
Iran demands in Vienna that the U.S. end all sanctions before they agree to return to the uranium enrichment limits specified in the JCPOA to 3.5%. On April 13, Iran announced that it was ramping up uranium enrichment at its underground Natanz facility to 60%, one small step from weapons grade fuel. Iran’s 81-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to enrich to 60% in response to recent attacks on the Natanz facility that created an electrical blackout April 11, blaming the cyber-attack on Israel. When a fire broke out at Natanz July 6, 2020, Iran also blamed Israel for sabotage. Despite resuming discussion in Vienna, the Ayatollah has made negotiations more difficult in Vienna, prompting the P5+1 to express concerns whether of not the JCPOA could be revised. Ayatollah’s decision to push Natanz to 60% fuel shows Iran’s tough bargaining position
Iran has always denied that its nuclear program was intended to build an A-bomb, claiming that it’s only for “peaceful purposes.” While the P5+1 called the Vienna talks “constructive,” there were concerns about the Ayatollah’s decision to push Natanz to 60% purity. U.S., U.K., France and Germany called Iran’s actions “provocative,” not dealing with the real issue behind Trump’s decision to back out of the JCPOA. Iran threatens to enrich uranium to 60% to pressure the P5+1 into compliance, namely, removing all sanctions before Iran agrees to comply again with JCPOA enrichment limits. “Currently, I think the nuclear working group is more advanced, much more advanced, that [the] sanctions-lifting working group,” said Wang Qun, China’s ambassador to the U.N. atomic watchdog, mentioning nothing about Iran’s proxy wars with Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Meeting today in Nicosia, Cypress with Cypress Foreign Minsiter Nikos Chrsitodoulides, Greek Foreign Minister Knkos Dendias and UAE top foreign aid Anwar Gergash, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel would stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. “We will do whatever its takes to prevent the extremists [in Iran] from succeeding and definitely will prevent this regime from having a nuclear weapon,” said Ashkenazi. Ashkenazi and other foreign minister were concerned about Iran promising to enrich uranium to 60%. Whatever happens in Vienna, rejoining the JCPOA doesn’t stop Iran’s proxy war against Saudi Arabia, something that’s been going since 2015. Saudi Arabia has watched its biggest Aramco oil refinery attacked, with Iran’s ballistic missiles hitting Saudi’s International airport. No one in Vienna is prepared to broach those topics.
Iran wants the Vienna P5+1 to condemn Israel for disrupting the secret underground Natanz facility, despite getting no response. “The seriousness of Iran’s latest decisions has hurt this process and raised tensions,” said a senior Western diplomat Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wants the U.S. to end all sanctions before Iran agrees to resume the terms-and-conditions of the original JCPOA. President Joe Biden, 78, wants to return to deal negotiated under the Obama administration but knows that Iran can’t continue violating terms of the JCPOA. If there were any doubts about Iran’s intent of enriching uranium, promising to enrich to 60% tells the real story. Iran was always after weapons grade material and now uses U.S. sanctions as an excuse to purse what it’s been doing all along. No one in the P5+1 can be too thrilled about Iran’s new 60% enrichment limits.
Whatever happens in Vienna, the bigger problem is Iran’s proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu opposes current attempts to revive the JCPOA because he didn’t think the first agreement changed the break out time for Iran to develop and A-Bomb. “Iran –by remaining in the deal—passed with flying colors. The Biden administration, however, has only shown a commitment over the past days,” Zarif tweeted. Iran didn’t “pass with flying colors,” because the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] inspectors never had access to Natanz and other secret Iranian nuclear sites. No one really knows what Iran has done over the last six years, even before Trump backed out of the deal. Iran wants sanctions removed but doesn’t want the IAEA to perform unfettered inspections at of all of Iran’s secret nuclear sites, even with a revised JCPOA.
