Shahin Gobadi, spokesperson of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), answered the following questions regarding the Iranian regime’s red lines in nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 countries.
Question: The Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader said publicly last week that Iranian military sites and nuclear scientists would be off limits to IAEA inspectors. US officials have suggested that his comments were for a domestic audience. Is Tehran just trying to force a better deal?
Answer: In reality, Khamenei’s remarks fit the framework that he has articulated for nuclear talks by the negotiating team.
While talks were taking place, on several occasions he has addressed various aspects of the Iranian regime’s nuclear program including the scope of uranium enrichment in Iran and the issue of sanctions, but a review of Khamenei’s positions and in particular the red lines laid out by him show, as a recent report by the NCRI underscored, that three issues stand out and have been consistently reiterated by him in the course of the past two years: There will be no access for inspectors to Iranian military sites, nor to the nuclear scientists, and there will be no stopping of nuclear Research and Development.
While during the talks Khamenei has tried to be rather vague in his position and send mixed signals, in reality so far as his three red lines are concerned, the message is very clear: These three red lines constitute the main pillars of the military aspect of the Iranian nuclear program. In other words, the main red lines for Khamenei have been to maintain the most crucial and fundamental aspects of the nuclear weapons program, and he has reiterated this time and again.
These are exactly the very same red lines that he reiterated once again during his remarks last week.
Question: What do you think the response of the P5+1 ought to be?
Answer: Let’s be clear. Khamenei wants to maintain the program to acquire nuclear weapons and see sanctions lifted at the same time. The Obama administration has said time and again that it wants to close all pathways for the regime to obtain nuclear weapons.
In order to close all pathways of the Iranian regime to the nuclear bomb the following steps are essential and they ought not to be negotiated away:
• Immediate and unconditional access to all known sites (or sites to be determined later) that are suspect of being involved in the nuclear project, including all military, security or non-military sites;
• Immediate and unconditional access for the IAEA to all scientists and experts involved in the nuclear program;
• Complete and unambiguous addressing of all IAEA questions, and investigations by Tehran about the PMD of the nuclear program;
• Disclosure of relations and transactions with other countries, including North Korea, on the nuclear and ballistic missiles programs;
• Immediate removal of all enriched uranium from Iran (except for the 300 kg agreed upon) in any form or shape it may be;
• Tehran should come clean by being transparent and it should provide all documents on previous work, including illicit networks and smuggling routes for purchasing nuclear equipment parts and technology;
• Ratification and implementation of the Additional Protocol Plus;
• Lifting of sanctions should be preconditioned to complete “transparency” and providing comprehensive answers and granting complete access to the IAEA;
• Full implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions.
Question: If at the end of the current set of talks Tehran still refuses to allow UN inspectors access to Iranian military sites and nuclear scientists and refuses to halt Research and Development, what then?
Tehran’s attempts to prevent access to some of its sites or keep its research and development intact have only one meaning: The mullahs want to obtain the bomb.
Anyone who has followed the mullahs’ nuclear program over the years can tell that the mullahs’ attitude vis-a vis the international community on the nuclear issue has been riddled with deception and has been like a game of “hide-and seek.” The clerical regime has never had any interest in providing any insight on its nuclear program.
This can also be discerned from the mullahs’ attitude in the talks. For the past two years, the mullahs keep repeating that there must be “trust-building” instead of “transparency.” The reason is that “transparency” is synonymous with revealing the nature of the regime’s nuclear program and specifying its objectives, particularly the possible military dimensions (PMD). So, failure to provide unhindered, unconditional snap inspections at all the sites including the military ones leads to only one conclusion: the mullahs have no interest in transparency since they seek the bomb.
Pinning hope on such talks is totally delusional. The time has come for a different policy on Iran, one that realizes the ultimate solution to the mullahs’ drive to acquire nuclear weapons is regime change by the Iranian people and their organized Resistance. Khamenei and his minions have already gotten away for far too long due to the appeasement policy of the West, in particular the Obama administration. The moment of truth has arrived and the mullahs should not be given any more room for cheating, vacillation, and procrastination. It is time to see the mullahs and their nuclear program for what it is.
