US Divisions Over Iran Aired As Special Envoy Malley Briefs Senate

The Article 90 Committee -- a parliamentary body mandated by the Constitution to pursue complaints concerning the work of government institutions -- presented a report on Wednesday, claiming that Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Salehi deliberately ignored a December 2020 legislation entitled "Strategic Action To Eliminate Sanctions and Defend Iranian Nation's Interests.”

Touted as putting a clear legal responsibility on the government to escalate the nuclear crisis, the law was aimed at boosting uranium enrichment and restricting international nuclear inspections, if JCPOA signatories did not scrap all sanctions on Iran, including those related to human rights.

The committee said that since the refusal of these two former officials to implement the law on several occasions has been proven, the case will be "sent to the judicial authorities".

Former president Rouhani and his ministers have been threatened before with prosecution for a host of alleged mistakes and shortcomings by hardliners dominating the parliament.

The parliament passed the legislation following the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, arguing that Iran had gained nothing from the 2015 deal and even blamed it for the assassination.

Bolton told Iran International’s Fardad Farahzad on Tuesday that if the Biden administration returns to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, it will make a big mistake because Israel will feel threatened, intensifying the proxy conflict between the Islamic Republic and Israel to a full-fledged war. 

The possibility of reviving the JCPOA is very low, and if the Vienna talks fail, on the one hand, "Israel or others" may take covert or overt action to stop Iran's nuclear program, and on the other hand, sanctions against the Islamic Republic will increase.

In response to a question about the joint naval drills between the US Navy and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, he noted that the Iranian threat in the region has reached a very serious point but the possibility of a full-blown war in the short term is still very low, adding that there is no real possibility of a war between Iran and the US because it is tantamount to “suicide” for the Islamic Republic.

US Central Command said on Tuesday that the naval forces of the US and the UAE have started a 10-day drill, codenamed Iron Defender.

Earlier on Tuesday, Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy told Iran International that "It would be tragic if we didn't get back into the nuclear agreement. I have yet to hear Republicans present a plausible alternative for how we keep the region and the world safe from nuclear weapons without this diplomatic agreement."

Answering a question by our correspondent Samira Gharaei at the State department briefing on Tuesday about claims by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that the Islamic Republic has proposed new initiatives aimed at reviving the nuclear deal, spokesman Ned Price implicitly confirmed the news but avoided directly commenting on Iran's proposals. 

Price reiterated that Washington and its European partners are ready to conclude an agreement in Vienna for the mutual compliance with the JCPOA, noting that for that to happen, “Tehran needs to decide to drop demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA”, suggesting that the new proposals by Tehran include demands extraneous to the 2015 accord. 

He confirmed that Tehran and Washington are engaged in indirect regular contact via Enrique Mora, the European Union coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, saying, “We await a constructive response from the Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA.” 

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Earlier in the day, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization released a copy of its answers to IAEA questions about origins of uranium found at three undeclared locations, saying “sabotage” is the only explanation. 

The document that was released to the media on Tuesday was earlier submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which rejected the explanations as "technically not credible".

Iran agreed March 5 to provide written explanations by March 20 of long-standing issues in its nuclear work before 2003, and to clear up remaining queries by June 21. The latest quarterly report by the UN watchdog expressed dissatisfaction with Iran’s response to agency over sites not declared as part of the nuclear program where inspectors detected traces of uranium. This led to a resolution critical of Iran’s nuclear cooperation by the agency’s board of governors on June 8. 

In its answers, Iran maintained that the only plausible explanation for such traces is probably sabotage by foreign elements at Marivan, Varamin and Turquzabad sites, pointing out that the Varamin center, near the capital Tehran, was "never" used for nuclear activities.  

Iran said the IAEA’s claims about storage of nuclear material and/or conduct of nuclear-related activities, at Varamin are not supported by valid proofs and are misleading, noting that “the initial activities conducted in this location had been exploitation of sodium sulphate from the soil and water of the surrounding region.” 

For Marivan, which is a misnomer as the site is located near the city of Abadeh in the southwestern Fars province, Iran said the origin of the particles is "unknown" and insists the site was used for "the exploitation of fireclay through a contract with a foreign company decades ago" hence the IAEA’s “conclusion is absolutely false, unrealistic and biased.”

Iran claims it carried out its own investigation in Turquzabad and "did not find the origin of the particles" reported by the IAEA. 

Later on Tuesday, the head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said that Iran’s contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency are still underway, reiterating that Iran will act based on the safeguards protocol. 

The resolution called on Iran to engage with the IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, without delay and expressed “profound concern” at Iran’s failure to satisfy the agency over the traces of uranium.

Following the resolution, Iran retaliated, telling the IAEA it plans to remove more monitoring equipment, but intends to maintain a basic level of monitoring and inspectors’ access as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

The resolution comes with year-long talks paused since March between Iran and five world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

This comes while Iranian politicians seem divided over how essential the nuclear talks are for Iran. While, Falahatpisheh said in an interview with Khabar Online that it is essential for Iran to stick to the 2015 nuclear agreement, the former spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast told Didban Iran news website that the clock is ticking in Iran's favor and Tehran will benefit from prolonging the negotiations.

Falahatpisheh, the former chairman of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, argued that unlike what Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once said, UN resolutions are not simply “shreds of paper,” and if the IAEA board of governors issues a resolution, it can shift Iran's nuclear case from the UN nuclear watchdog to the Security Council, where member states can return all the previous international sanctions against Iran.

However, Falahatpisheh did not mention that in 2006 when first international sanctions were imposed, the United States, China and Russia spoke in one voice about Iran's nuclear case while in 2022, and in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, Moscow might veto any UNSC resolution against Iran.

Nonetheless, Falahatpisheh who has served as a lawmaker for 12 years and is currently teaching at the University of Tehran is adamant that neither Iran nor the United States see the revival of the JCPOA as their top priority.

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He added that if the JCPOA is to be revived, the only players who should remain at the negotiating table are the main beneficiaries, that is Iran and the United States. He repeated his position first expressed in March that Tehran and Washington should marginalize Russia, China and the three European states if they really wish the talks to be fruitful.

The US has always welcomed direct talks, even during former president Donald Trump’s administration that withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed sanctions, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is ideologically opposed to it.

Falahatpisheh explained that the JCPOA is no longer a priority in Iran as the country has shifted from an economy geared toward development to one of austerity, aimed at providing the bare necessities for the nation.

He argued that Iran has handed over its fate to “Russian and Chinese lobbies” whose first and foremost concerns are the interests of their own countries, and if Tehran moves toward acquiring nuclear weapons Russia and China will certainly act against Iran.

Meanwhile, Former Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said: “Westerners think that Iran's only weak point is its domestic economy and wish to secure their interests by exerting maximum pressure on Tehran.”

The former diplomat added: "Iran's national interests are tied to the JCPOA and senior officials [Islamic Republic jargon for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei] have set a red line for Iranian negotiators. We should make sure that we have a powerful presence in the negotiations as Westerners try to create tensions to blackmail Iran and get concessions while conceding little in return."

"On the other hand, the West considers Iran's powerful regional presence and its missile program as Tehran's two points of strength. They wish to weaken us in these two areas, but the Islamic Republic has made it clear that these are not negotiable," said Mehmanparast.

He concluded: "The clock is ticking in our interest and the longer the negotiation process becomes we will have more time to sort out our economic problems."

Separately, he also said the US will “cooperate” with Israel to stop Iran weaponizing.

In a joint press conference Monday with South Korean foreign Minister Park Jin the United States Secretary of State praised the 2015 deal – the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) – as “the most comprehensive and complete monitoring and inspections regime of any arms control agreement yet put in place.”

At the same time, Blinken voiced concern over Iran’s negotiating tactics in the stalled Vienna talks. “But what we’ve seen is Iran continuing to try to inject extraneous issues into the conversation, into the negotiation, that simply have no place there.”

Referring to year-long talks between Iran and world powers to revive the 2015 agreement, Blinken said that “a lot of work went into seeing if we could return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA” but “it is fundamentally up to Iran to decide whether or not it wishes to re-engage.”

The Biden administration came into office committed to restoring the JCPOA, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018 calling the deal “the worst in history.” Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ pressure sanctions on Iran were followed in 2019 with Tehran expanding its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits, a move that accelerated after the election of Joe Biden.

Cooperation with Israel

In a video address to the American Jewish Congress Forum delivered Monday, Blinken said “we are continuing our close coordination with our Israeli partners to prevent Iran from developing” a nuclear weapon.

This came with claims in the New York Times that Israel, which opposes the JCPOA, had poisoned two Iranian scientists, Ayoub Entezari and Kamran Aghamolaei, who were in May reported dead from food poisoning.

The November 2021 killing of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, which outraged the Iranian parliament and led it to pass legislation expanding Iran’s nuclear program, was widely attributed to Israel, as were four killings and one attempted murder 2010-12.

“We have shifted into a higher gear,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said last week at a meeting of parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committee. “We are acting at all times and places, and we will continue to do so.”

Israel has also been carrying out widespread military drills reported by the Israeli media as simulating attacks on Iran.

Biden criticized from both sides

The Biden administration’s approach has led to nervousness in the European Union, which has led efforts to keep open a diplomatic path with Tehran and it concerned over what is perceived as lethargy in the face of Israeli saber-rattling.

In the US, criticism of the US administration’s approach has been growing as the Iranian nuclear program continues to expand under reduced monitoring by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

At the beginning of June, Robert Menendez, chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, said “hope is not a national security strategy” and more recently that restoring the JCPOA was not in US interests. Menendez called for a “comprehensive strategy” over Iran.

Supporters of the JCPOA agree Biden’s approach has failed. The president had “ruled out the symbolic concession that would be most likely to break the months-long diplomatic impasse [taking Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the US list of ‘foreign terrorist organizations,’ reportedly an issue in talks],” Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, wrote in a piece published June 9.

But opponents of making concessions to Iran say removing the IRGC from the US terror list is not a symbolic act at all, as the military-intelligence outfit actively pursues a policy to harm Americans and allies.