Iran has sought to put tougher restrictions on IAEA inspections and Iran has been using advanced centrifuges at its Natanz and Fordow facilities
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a virtual speech, on the occasion of the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, in Tehran, Iran November 3, 2020.
(photo credit: OFFICIAL KHAMENEI WEBSITE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
The Gemunder Center’s Iran Policy Project of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) released a report on Wednesday arguing that “simply abiding by the letter of the JCPOA would leave Iran with too advanced a nuclear program for the United States to accept and too many economic constraints for Tehran to abide.”
The new US administration of President Joe Biden came into office hoping to reduce tensions with Iran and possibly reverse many of the Trump administration’s policies in the Middle East. The Biden administration has listened keenly to Israel’s concerns.
JINSA president and CEO Dr. Michael Makovsky argued Wednesday that “Right now Washington and Tehran are arguing over who should take the first step to reenter the JCPOA, but that may be the smallest of the many hurdles to reviving the nuclear agreement.”
He notes that it may not be possible to ever return to the JCPOA as it was pre-2018 without damaging US interests. “Despite Tehran’s adamancy that it can easily and quickly walk back all its violations, its work on newer centrifuges and construction of new facilities has already irreversibly advanced its nuclear program beyond the four corners of the JCPOA,” he says.
The new report warns against Washington trying to get back to a nuclear deal by giving up too many sanctions, in exchange for too few nuclear concessions from Tehran. “Thus, the first step in realizing the Biden’s Administration’s oft-stated desire to pursue a more comprehensive agreement should be to recognize there is no returning to the JCPOA,” the report argues.
In recent weeks, Iran has sought to put tougher restrictions on International Atomic Energy Commission inspections – and Iran has been using advanced centrifuges at its Natanz and Fordow facilities, according to reports. The IAEA has expressed concern that the Islamic Republic has undeclared nuclear material. This has raised alarm bells because Iran eschewed meeting with the US in Europe and is playing hardball, demanding that America lift sanctions.
THANKS TO Israel’s seizure of Iranian nuclear archives in 2018, we now also know much more about how Iran has been acting in bad faith all along and never fully complied with the original agreement. Tehran returning to the JCPOA would mean leaving these issues unaddressed, and therefore, its nuclear progress would be under even fewer restraints than under the original deal.
