Heiko Maas, Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, urged the Iranian regime to fully comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Making requests to the regime will not stop the mullahs’ nuclear extortion campaign and quest for a nuclear bomb; Europe should take decisive action.
Maas called for the regime’s “full compliance, full transparency, and full cooperation,” under the terms of the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), following the regime’s step to no longer honor the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s Additional Protocol, which grants the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to information and locations of the regime’s nuclear sites.
Meanwhile, according to the Iranian Resistance’s revelations in 2017, the mullahs had never abided by their commitments under the terms of the JCPOA. Tehran started a nuclear extortion campaign in 2018 by publicly breaching its JCPOA commitments after the United States pulled out of the deal.
Sadly, since the regime started its nuclear extortion campaign, the European signatories to the JCPOA partly succumbed to its blackmailing campaign and refused to take decisive action.
The Europeans should know that the regime’s nuclear extortion campaign does not come from a position of strength.
The regime’s parliament had adopted a law allowing the regime to withdraw from the Additional Protocol, and this law was supposed to be implemented on February 23.
On Sunday, at the end of his trip to Iran, the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi announced a bilateral agreement with the regime. “The IAEA will continue its verification activities for up to three months. This temporary agreement will lead to a place where the political negotiations can take place,” Iran’s state TV quoted Mr. Grossi on February 24.
This agreement increased the regime’s infighting. The regime’s MPs from the rival factions called the regime’s President Hassan Rouhani a “traitor.” Finally, the parliament passed a statement with 221 votes and referred the government to the judiciary for violating the law.
But why, even though the IAEA chief approved the suspension of the implementation of the Additional Protocol as part of the agreement, did the regime’s infightings increase? Hadn’t the parliament asked for the rest of the Additional Protocol in its resolution?
“We agreed that in view of the law, and in particular the provision that establishes limitations, we had reached a temporary bilateral technical understanding whereby the agency is going to continue its necessary verification and monitoring activities for a period of up to three months,” Mr. Grossi said on Sunday.
Thus, under the agreement, the regime formally suspends the Additional Protocol but does not come close to its substance, the intrusive inspections. According to Grossi, they are all in place.
The regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was behind this new agreement. Khamenei instructed his thugs in parliament to adopt the so-called “Strategic law to lift sanctions” to pressure the new U.S. administration and blackmail the international community.
Following Grossi’s trip to Iran, Khamenei and his regime had two options:
- Implementing their threats, following their so-called strategic law, suspending all inspections, and dismissing IAEA inspectors. In this case, the regime had to wait for severe international consequences.
- Setting back from their threat, showing that the regime’s nuclear extortion campaign is a sign of their weakness.
Khamenei chose the second way but using the first option as its façade. But the unprecedented infighting in the regime showed the depth of the regime’s crisis and that Tehran’s nuclear extortion campaign is not coming from a position of strength.
World leaders should understand this message. Increasing pressure on the regime will undoubtedly force the mullahs to stop their malign activities. Providing the regime with incentive packages will encourage them. The world leaders should punish the regime for its nuclear extortion and other malign activities. They should reimpose the six United Nations Security Council resolutions curbing the regime’s nuclear activities.