Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, October 5, 2021—As tensions grow over the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, officials in Tehran continue to show their disregard to become a peaceful contributor to world peace and security.
On Monday, Saeed Khatibzadeh, the spokesperson for the regime’s foreign ministry, stressed that the United States must release the regime’s frozen assets without any prerequisites.
“The U.S. can show that it’s changing its actions in many ways. Releasing $10 billion of our money is just one example,” Khatibzadeh said.
Khatibzadeh echoed a statement made by regime foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who told state media on Saturday that the U.S. must unblock $10 billion of frozen oil funds before talks over Iran’s nuclear program resume.
In recent months, the regime has taken a growing number of provocative actions regarding its nuclear program. The regime continues to make excuses to delay nuclear talks while continuing to build up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
In his recent speech to the UN General Assembly, regime president Ebrahim Raisi reiterated that his regime would not come under compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal until all sanctions against his regime were lifted. He made no mention of his regime’s dangerous stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
In the same week, Iranian authorities denied United Nations inspectors access to a nuclear site in Karaj. Two weeks earlier, in a meeting with Rafael Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, regime officials committed to allow UN inspectors to visit nuclear sites and repair and maintain their monitoring equipment.
Meanwhile, experts are warning that the regime is inching toward nuclear weapons capacity. According to various estimate, Tehran is weeks away from having enough fissile material for an atomic bomb.
In early September, the IAEA warned about the regime’s lack of cooperation and its growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The IAEA also warned that its verification and monitoring activities have been “seriously undermined” since February by Iran’s refusal to let inspectors access IAEA monitoring equipment.
In August, Grossi said that his inspectors had confirmed that Tehran has produced 200 grams of uranium metal enriched up to 20 percent.
In recent months, the Iranian regime’s counterparts have provided Tehran with all sorts of options to return to the talks. But the regime has proven time and again that it does not intend to make any compromise on its nuclear ambitions.
Next to domestic repression and foreign terrorism, nuclear weapons are one of the key tenets of the regime’s survival strategy. As a regime that has no intention to respect universal values and international norms, the mullahs ruling Iran see a nuclear weapon as the ultimate deterrent to ensure the continuation of their rule.
As the international community is trying to figure out how to deal with the regime’s nuclear program, world leaders will have to be very careful of repeating the mistakes of the past. Responding to the regime’s threats with concessions and invitations to negotiations will send a signal of weakness to the regime and provoke it to continue down its current path.
