Just when President Obama’s persuasion offensive was starting to bear fruit within Congress, set to vote on the Iran deal early next month, the Associated Press (AP) goes and bursts his balloon, leaving not only lawmakers but also America’s skeptical allies aghast that this is an arrangement with more holes than knots in a Persian carpet.
Being sold as the most intrusive inspections regime ever, the facts revealed by AP suggest the contrary, begging the question that the US and its partners may have caved in to Tehran’s demands in their eagerness to sign on the dotted line.
According to the terms of a secret side agreement, signed by Iran and the nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, pertaining to Iran’s Parchin military complex, Iran is being trusted to inspect and monitor its own activities in the very place where suspected tests of nuclear weapons detonators were once carried out.
In essence, Iranian scientists will be responsible for checking their country isn’t involved in anything dodgy and are obliged to keep the IAEA team up-to-date with regular photographs, videos and soil/air samples. Yes, Tehran — a sworn enemy of the West for over 35 years, which is doing its best to redraw the map of the Middle East — is being permitted to self-inspect!! This is exactly what Iranian negotiators wanted because, as has been expressed, IAEA inspectors are viewed as potential spies.
Are we then to accept this is a regime whose word is its bond? In that case, what was all the fuss about to begin with? The Supreme Leader’s already issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons and given that the man still leading the chants of “Death to America” is all of a sudden being viewed as a paragon of truth, the US and its allies should be apologizing for slapping his country with sanctions in the first place.
The IAEA’s Director-General, Yukiya Amano, insists there’s nothing to get excited about because “the arrangements are technically sound and consistent with our long-established practices.” That’s even more worrying. How many other countries have a do-it-yourself tool kit, I wonder!
He has rejected the AP report as “a misrepresentation” but can’t give details, because, after all, he has a legal obligation not to make them public, he says. He can’t even disclose the details to the US administration or Congress and has been warned not to do so, says a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization who applauded Amano for staying silent under pressure from Congress while warning “Had he done so, he himself would have been harmed,” reveals Fars News Agency.
Iran’s envoy at the IAEA, Reza Najafi, insists that no details of agreements made between the nuclear watchdog and Iran can be divulged to any third party, yet I’ve read that all P5+1 countries have agreed to such side deals.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who spearheaded American negotiating teams, told Congress that even he doesn’t know what’s in them.
You couldn’t make this up. Obama is making his voice heard on the airwaves rooting for the most stringent inspections regime in the history of mankind while it now appears he isn’t privy to the fine print. Of course, it requires a huge stretch of the imagination to believe the mighty US that satiates its hunger for surveillance with satellites, drones and human intelligence is happily being kept in the dark on this.
Iran could use Parchin to bake bread, store pistachios or develop nuclear warheads with no one the wiser. Moreover, although Iran was required by the IAEA to reveal its past military and nuclear activities, it’s now inexplicably off the hook.
No wonder Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif was seen crying tears of joy when he learned that all concerned had agreed to the deal. Iran emerged a winner; looking forward to becoming $80 billion richer overnight; European trade deals and open markets for its crude in return for reducing uranium enrichment levels and putting up with the occasional presence of IAEA snoopers.
But it’s not over until the fat lady sings and until now the sounds coming out of Congress are unusually disharmonious. The Republicans are screeching. Growing numbers of Democrats are singing out of tune. Whether the Maestro on Pennsylvania Avenue is skilled enough to gather them together in concert is too soon to tell.
