Following the fruitless results of a European Union plan to seal a nuclear deal between world powers and the Iranian regime, there has been quite a chaotic reaction seen from inside the mullahs’ ruling apparatus.
The Fars news agency, affiliated to the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), published an interview on Sunday with Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan daily, a known mouthpiece of Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, strongly criticizing the nuclear negotiations as a Western plot and recommending the regime should quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
20 years of talks have proven that “the other side is not worried about Iran producing nuclear weapons, rather it uses the issue as an excuse to keep sanctions” as the only remaining lever for the U.S. administration, Shariatmadari said.
Providing a different perspective regarding the current status quo of the ongoing nuclear limbo, Mohammad Marandi, an advisor to the regime’s nuclear negotiating team, said, “the establishment will be patient” and once again resorted to the childish pretext of “winter is coming and the European Union is facing a crippling energy crisis,” called for more talks with the West.
It is worth noting that due to the regime’s decades of negligence and incompetent policies, the mullahs’ natural gas industry can barely produce enough gas to provide for the country’s domestic needs of 800 million cubic meters, let alone export gas to Western countries.
People being humiliated under the pressure of harsh living conditions
Former Majlis (parliament) deputy speaker Ali Motahari’s remarks shed some light on the internal disputes inside Iran regarding the nuclear negotiations. “The method of negotiations with the U.S. is being ridiculed by people from all walks of life,” he explained, reminding the regime’s senior officials of the Iranian society’s explosive potential. “People are being humiliated under the pressure of harsh living conditions,” Motahari warned.
While reports claim the main differences between the Washington and Tehran being resolved in the nuclear negotiations and only a few matters remain unsettled, voices from inside the regime believe otherwise. “The differences are not just about two or three words. The conflicts are actually quite historic and deep. We cannot expect them to be resolved easily,” said Rahman Ghahremanpour, an international relations expert close to the regime’s inner circles.
Majlis member Ali Khezrian described the U.S. response to the European plan as disastrous for the Iranian regime, adding that none of Tehran’s red lines have been respected and the regime is expected to begin by living up to all its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Afterwards, the Iranian regime will only be able to export its oil to country’s approved by the U.S., and Tehran will not be able to exchange its oil revenue to U.S. dollars, euros, or other currencies of their choice. To add insult to injury for the mullahs’ regime, 1,600 of the existing 1,700 sanctions targeting various individuals and entities will remain intact.
In the midst of this mayhem, Khamenei is insisting on his regime continuing to enrich uranium and pushing forward their nuclear weapons drive as a means to safeguard the survival of their tyrannical rule. However, it is crystal clear that he is not in a position to allow an end to the nuclear negotiations process. As explained by Mohammad Eslami, head of the regime’s Atomic Energy Organization, the negotiations nullify a portion of the other parties’ pressures on Tehran.
It is all the more obvious now after 17-months of cat-and-mouse games in the nuclear negotiations that the mullahs’ regime cannot afford to completely adhere to the end result of a nuclear agreement. What goes unmentioned in the West is the fact that any finalization of a nuclear agreement with the world powers will result in escalating demands by the Iranian people, with the majority of the country’s 85 million population living in unprecedented poverty.
The mullahs ruling Iran, known for their incompetence and neglect when it comes to social demands, are fully aware of the highly likely scenario of protests erupting as a result of the regime’s continued domestic failures after if a nuclear deal is sealed.
This is exactly why it is continuing the rinse-and-repeat method of calling for more nuclear talks and suddenly throwing a monkey wrench in the works at the very last moment.
