Courting Iran : Rachel Ehrenfeld
The secret is out: The United States’ policy toward Iran is made by Tehran, not the White House. On December 7, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned, “If Congress adopts sanctions … The entire deal is dead. We do not like to negotiate under duress.”
Zarif’s threat worked magic. President Obama and his secretary of state John Kerry embarked on twisting Congress’s arms to stop the bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which aimed to close “loopholes in the current sanctions on Iran.”
Today, the White House, on behalf of the mullahs, succeeded to kill the bill, which would have applied only “after the six-month negotiations period-specified in an interim deal reached last month with Iran-expired and only if Iran had been found in violation of its obligations.”
Reassured, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi, “announced that Tehran has no more plans to allow inspection of its heavy water reactor in Arak.”
Earlier this week, in Vienna, talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were concluded with the decision to meet again.
The talks were reported as “productive.” However, as LIGNET reported today, “IAEA Official: ‘We’re Not Prepared’ to Verify Agreement with Iran,” for the following reasons:
“* The IAEA was not fully consulted during the November negotiations between Iran and P5+1 nations.
* The IAEA may not have sufficient manpower to carry out required daily activities at Natanz and Fordow.
* The IAEA has very few inspectors with technical knowledge of heavy water reactors such as the one at Arak.
* The IAEA will not be able to render much substantive insight into data supplied by Iran because the agency will not be able to verify with confidence the source or reliability of the information.”
Despite these obstacles and Iran’s latest refusal to allow “inspection of its heavy water reactor in Arak,” the White House killed the amendment that could have allowed the reinforcing of the sanctions on Iran, for its guaranteed failure to stop its nuclear enrichment program. The White House dancing to the mullahs’ tune has dangerous implications to the region and beyond.
Comments are closed.
