LONDON: Tehran has engaged in a longstanding pattern of “cheating” behavior to derail scrutiny from the international community into its nuclear ambitions, said Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy chairman of the Washington office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Such behavior includes delaying inspections, lying and tampering with evidence, he added as a led a virtual policy panel on Thursday, attended by Arab News, to discuss a new report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The discussion highlighted examples of Tehran refusing to cooperate with, or actively misleading, inspectors — including from the IAEA — as proof that it continues to deserve suspicion over its motives for continuing its nuclear program and seeking the lifting of international sanctions
Jafarzadeh was joined by three senior analysts: Kirsten Fontenrose of the Atlantic Council, Ilan I. Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council and Steven P. Bucci of the Heritage Foundation.
They discussed Tehran’s links to regional and international terrorism, and its “belligerence” toward its neighbors.
The discussion took place against the backdrop of ratcheting tension between the US and Iran in the wake of the former pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, in 2018, followed by its efforts this year to see the re-imposition of UN sanctions on Tehran, including the extension of an arms embargo.
Fontenrose said the end of the embargo would have major repercussions for the region, making it easier for Iran to arm its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and proxy militias in other countries — including Syria, Yemen and Iraq — with state-of-the-art weaponry.
“When thinking about whether to allow the embargo to end, Europe should investigate whether the IRGC’s plans … will be made more dangerous if the IRGC has access to advanced weaponry,” she added.
“Russia should take seriously the recent letter from a united Gulf Cooperation Council to the UN urging that the embargo stay in place. The US and Europe need to arrive at one voice on the embargo.”
Bucci echoed her fears over the prospective end of the embargo. “Bottom line: The Iranian regime conducts foreign policy and diplomacy by terror,” he said.
“It’s really a remarkable record of nefarious activity that has caused problems for the world. Funding (of the IRGC) is going to be shot through the moon if this arms embargo comes off.”
Berman, one of the US’s leading experts on Iran and defense policy in the Middle East, said given Tehran’s actions in the region, Washington will want to see greater international consensus about a firm line on Iranian violations of the terms of the JCPOA. Otherwise, he added, the US will be forced to act unilaterally against Tehran.
“The violations that are cited in the latest IAEA report are significant,” he said. “This is a question of legitimacy for the UN Security Council — whether when faced with very clear evidence of violations of an international understanding, the UN Security Council is prepared to move.”
The panel also discussed the shifting state of domestic politics in Iran, and its ability to change the country’s direction away from the path set by the regime, with Jafarzadeh citing “the uprising that has continued over the past two or three years.”
He said: “We’ve had several rounds of uprisings. This COVID-19 thing is going to be a big problem for the Iranian regime because the people are taking their anger (out) against the regime. The issue of corruption has become a key, key issue.”
Berman said: “What we’ve seen over the last two and a half years … in terms of the protests, in terms of the social uprisings, in terms of the persistent unrest that you’ve seen on the Iranian streets, represents a fundamental rejection of the Iranian regime itself.”
‘Cheating’ Iran must not have arms embargo lifted: Experts
https://arab.news/z6qz2
‘Cheating’ Iran must not have arms embargo lifted: Experts
- “Cheating” behavior includes delaying inspections, lying and tampering with evidence, Jafarzadeh said
- The discussion took place against the backdrop of ratcheting tension between the US and Iran
Trump says change of power in Iran would be ‘best thing’
- Trump’s comments were his most overt call yet for the toppling of Iran’s clerical establishment
- USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest warship — would be “leaving very soon” for the Middle East
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Friday that a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen,” as he sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to ratchet up military pressure on the Islamic republic.
Trump’s comments were his most overt call yet for the toppling of Iran’s clerical establishment, and came as he pushes on Washington’s arch-foe Tehran to make a deal to limit its nuclear program.
At the same time, the exiled son of the Iranian shah toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution renewed his calls for international intervention following a bloody crackdown on protests by Tehran.
“Seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” Trump told reporters at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina when a journalist asked if he wanted “regime change” in Iran.
Trump declined to say who he would want to take over in Iran from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he added that “there are people.”
He has previously backed off full-throated calls for a change of government in Iran, warning that it could cause chaos, although he has made threats toward Khamenei in the past.
Speaking earlier at the White House, Trump said that the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest warship — would be “leaving very soon” for the Middle East to up the pressure on Iran.
“In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump said.
The giant vessel is currently in the Caribbean following the US overthrow of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. Another carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is one of 12 US ships already in the Middle East.
‘Terribly difficult’
When Iran began its crackdown on protests last month — which rights groups say killed thousands — Trump initially said that the United States was “locked and loaded” to help demonstrators.
But he has recently focused his military threats on Tehran’s nuclear program, which US forces struck last July during Israel’s unprecedented 12-day war with Iran.
The protests have subsided for now but US-based Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, urged international intervention to support the Iranian people.
“We are asking for a humanitarian intervention to prevent more innocent lives being killed in the process,” he told the Munich Security Conference.
It followed a call by the opposition leader, who has not returned to his country since before the revolution, for Iranians at home and abroad to continue demonstrations this weekend.
Videos verified by AFP showed people in Iran this week chanting anti-government slogans as the clerical leadership celebrated the anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
Iran and the United States, who have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the revolution, held talks on the nuclear issue last week in Oman. No dates have been set for new talks yet.
The West fears the program is aimed at making a bomb, which Tehran denies.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said Friday that reaching an accord with Iran on inspections of its processing facilities was possible but “terribly difficult.”
Reformists released
Trump said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week that he wanted to continue talks with Iran, defying pressure from his key ally for a tougher stance.
The Israeli prime minister himself expressed skepticism at the quality of any agreement if it didn’t also cover Iran’s ballistic missiles and support for regional proxies.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, 7,008 people, mostly protesters, were killed in the recent crackdown, although rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher.
More than 53,000 people have also been arrested, it added.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO said “hundreds” of people were facing charges linked to the protests that could see them sentenced to death.
Figures working within the Iranian system have also been arrested, with three politicians detained this week from the so-called reformist wing of Iranian politics supportive of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The three — Azar Mansouri, Javad Emam and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh — were released on bail Thursday and Friday, their lawyer Hojjat Kermani told the ISNA news agency.
