How Iran Can Deny Infamy of JCPOA

A couple of days ago and in questionable remarks and when he was asked about Iran’s pullout and return to the JCPOA status quo ante regarding recent measures to reduce its JCPOA commitments, Iranian President’s Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi said, “No. The JCPOA is currently in its own place and the U.S. is the only party which has left it and there is too much left for Iran’s exit from the JCPOA.”

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Vaezi made such remarks while earlier President Hassan Rouhani had ordered the Atomic Energy Organization (AOI) to fuel the Fordow nuclear facility and the decision in a letter has been announced to the IAEA. According to the news reports, in this letter President had stipulated that the Islamic Republic of Iran would start resuming injection of UF6 gas in the Fordow facility as of Wednesday November 15 and the letter had asked the IAEA to dispatch its inspectors to the site to be present at the time of fueling. In this stage and process in the underground Fordow nuclear facility, near city of Qom, the enrichment operation would be expanded for producing uranium to 5 percent, the letter added.

By the way, according to the agreements in the JCPOA, Iran was not supposed to pursue the enrichment process in the Fordow site and neither it was to have nuclear material there but due to reneging on the obligations by Europe and the U.S., the process of enrichment is now pursued in the Fordow facility and nuclear material is available there, too.

The AOI officials say the process for enrichment has several stages and the first stage is to transfer the material  and this transfer has been done and in the second stage, this material should be connected to the feeding lines, and after this stage, other stages will come which are just carried out.

Regarding President Rouhani’s order for taking the fourth step of Iran’s walking back on the nuclear accord (JCPOA), Head of the AOI Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi in an interview said that there are currently 1044 centrifuges in the Fordow Nuclear Facility which are under vacuum, adding that the organization will activate some of those centrifuges which used to enrich uranium to 5 to 20 percent.

On Wednesday and with IAEA inspectors in presence, the operation for enrichment of uranium to 5 percent as well as enrichment of sustainable isotopes started at the Martyr Ali Mohammadi Nuclear Facility (Fordow).

Experts familiar with the nuclear sciences believe that although the amount of scaling back from the JCPOA commitment is insignificant but the will for reducing the commitments is important and with continuation of this situation, the ball will be now on Europe’s court which tries to save just a crust of the JCPOA to save  face politically. Otherwise with this current trend that the U.S. propagates sanctions day in day and without observing the international laws and the UNSC Resolutions, and at the same time Europe does not dare to oppose it or it acts like a puppet in a marionette, nothing has essentially remained from the JCPOA to be followed by anyone.

Mr. Vaezi, our former friend, is also busy with speaking out his dreams and wishes and he is ignorant that such questionable remarks relay this signal to the other side that Iran and especially the 12^th government is determined to save and implement the useless JCPOA for the people with any humiliation and at any cost.

The remarks make one ponder that these remarks would perhaps encourage the other party not to take the least action to fulfill its obligations. The concerns grow more when we find out that a French diplomat in an interview says that Iran’s steps of walking back on the nuclear accord are just political and symbolic.

Our statesmen have once and again and concurrent with any step for reducing the JCPOA commitments have repeated that negotiations with the other parties would continue and Iran will return to the status quo ante before the deadline as soon as the other party takes the first step. Such remarks send wrong signals which encourage the other party to become more impudence and inaction.

To sum up, majority of honorable Iranian nation believe the disgrace of the JCPOA is undeniable and its stigma will, for ever, remain with Hashemi Rafsanjani’s team and allies who administered the 11^th and 12the  governments.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian