The people of Iran don’t want nuclear weapons. The mullahs’ nuclear proliferation has brought them nothing but economic devastation and regional insecurity and the bomb would only strengthen the rule of their fundamentalist dictators. The world community is united in its opposition to a nuclear-armed regime in Iran. Despite the global consensus, one policy misjudgment by the Obama administration can lead the region to deeper crises.
The Washington Post highlights an important report by the former deputy director of the UN nuclear agency who has warned that the current terms of a deal being negotiated by the P5+1 states with the regime would leave it well within range of having the potential to build a nuclear bomb within months. The State Department has indicated it would be willing to forget a disclosure by the regime about its past military activities as part of a deal to end sanctions, and there are sound arguments against President Obama’s estimate of the regime’s “breakout time” to build the bomb. The regime is refusing to give UN monitors unfettered access to its military sites and nuclear scientists, making any deal by the West to curb its nuclear projects worthless.
Even as the Obama administration makes even further concessions to the mullahs, the people of Iran are facing the worst human rights abuses. Nearly 1,800 executions have taken place during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure, despite his claim to moderation. Iranian society is seething with discontent. Tens of millions of enraged teachers, students, nurses and workers are each day demanding freedom, democracy, jobs and livelihood. Earlier this month at the largest international pro-democracy rally for Iran in Paris, Iranians of all walks of life backed the platform of opposition leader Maryam Rajavi for a democratic, secular and non-nuclear Iran.
The rally also brought together hundreds of Western, Arab and Asian lawmakers and dignitaries who all fear the prospect of the mullahs armed with nuclear weapons spreading their hegemony and fundamentalist terror in the region.
The consensus in the US is bi-partisan. Former New York mayor and a Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani told the rally: “We unequivocally support a non-nuclear Iran. Iran should have no, none, zero nuclear capacity because the regime in Iran can’t be trusted with it. You do not put weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a psychopathic, homicidal murderer.”
Warning that the mullahs must never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, Rep. Brad Sherman, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on terrorism, nonproliferation and trade, said: “The current Iranian regime is not only an existential threat to US allies in the Middle East, but also a defiant proliferator of terrorism and extremism.”
Even the US President’s European allies now are calling against further concessions to the mullahs.
Maryam Rajavi, who leads Iran’s main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), rightly warned the P5+1 leaders: “If you do not want a nuclear-armed fundamentalist regime, stop appeasing it. Do not bargain over the human rights of the Iranian people and recognize their organized Resistance which is striving for freedom. You are gravely mistaken in thinking that there is no solution. There is a solution for ending the mullahs’ nuclear weapons program: regime change by the Iranian people and Resistance.”
A key error by the West, led by the US, was to ignore UN Security Council resolutions barring the regime from enriching uranium and offer major concessions propelling the regime closer to the bomb.
The Iranian people will not accept any agreement that does not dismantle the regime’s bomb-making infrastructure. The regime was first drawn to international negotiations from a position of weakness. President Obama should now sign on to a proper deal that would push back the advances that the regime has since made. UN Security Council resolutions must be implemented fully. Uranium enrichment must be halted completely. All suspect sites, military or otherwise, must be inspected. And the regime must provide answers to the military dimensions of its nuclear project and make its nuclear experts available for IAEA questioning.
In the interest of world peace and security, President Obama needs to end the concessions to the mullahs and side with Iran’s democratic opposition to achieve regime change.