FM Reiterates: Iran Will Never Seek a Nuclear Weapon
Iran has been disavowing nuclear arms since 2003
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(June 25, 2019 — There appears to be substantial misunderstanding around the world about the specifics of the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran. The deal is not in any real way about nuclear weapons, and when the deal was reached Iran had no nuclear weapons program, and had for over a decade disavowed the very idea of ever acquiring them.
Talk of Iran acquiring such a weapon has entirely been talk out of Western hawks, and no matter how many times Iran reiterates that nuclear weapons are in violation of religious law, the allegations continue. Iranian FM Javad Zarif reiterated that matter again today, saying Iran “will never pursue a nuclear weapon.”
By contrast, Zarif pointed out that the US has nuclear weapons and has actually used them in the past. He expressed surprise that President Trump was worried about killing 150 people in an attack on Iran, asking “how many people have you killed with a nuclear weapon?”
The P5+1 deal was always meant to govern Iran’s civilian nuclear program, the only one they have, and which has no military dimension. At present, Iran is enriching uranium to 3.6%, which is the level used in an electricity-generating plant at Bushehr. This is the sum total of Iran’s program.
While Iran has suggested specific commitments within the P5+1 deal may change, since the US after all dishonored that treaty, this too would be totally unrelated to militarization. Iran’s enrichment program is only producing at very low civilian levels, and weapons-grade uranium is in excess of 90%, far beyond Iran having shown the ability to even approach, let alone produce.
And once again, Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium is neither here nor there, since they have repeatedly disavowed ever having nuclear weapons as a formal religious tenet, since 2003. President Trump promised to be Iran’s “best friend” if they’d only disavow such weapons. Iran did so before Trump’s comments, and they’ve done so after. The result from Trump was a solid day of threatening total obliteration.
Iran Says Saving Nuclear Deal Not Its Problem
Europeans insist there is no ‘credible’ alternative to existing deal
(June 26, 2019) — The P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran is not in good shape, as new meetings at the UN Security Council discussed the possibility of saving the deal without US involvement, and Iranian officials expressed growing impatience at being asked to make more and more concessions.
The nuclear deal was meant to give Iran sanctions relief in return for accepting severe limits on its civilian nuclear program, as well as a level of safeguard access no other country is asked to meet.
While Iran has remained in compliance with the deal throughout, the sanctions relief has been almost entirely nonexistent, with European nations so far unable to bypass US threats, despite nominally remaining in the deal.
Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi warned that “Iran alone cannot, shall not, and will not take all of the burdens any more to preserve” the deal. European officials have been quite happy with asking Iran to make all the sacrifices to preserve the deal, and are warning Iran there is no “credible” alternative but for them to keep giving the other parties everything they want, and receiving nothing in return.
The status quo is a great deal for everyone but Iran, but Iranian officials have been warning they can’t be expected to maintain this forever, and today’s comments indicate that they’re going to further limit any voluntary compliance they have offered.
Which has US hawks champing at the bit to pick a fight. US Ambassador Jonathan Cohen slammed the nuclear deal in general, but then also condemned Iran for its “defiance” in saying they can’t sustain it by themselves.
He called on the UN to further punish Iran for “non-performance” in its commitments, even though Iran has met all his commitments, and then some, since it went into effect.
The US is the least viable Security Council member to bring up this complaint, as they never met their own obligations under the deal, then dishonored the deal outright.
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