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The West must be more than worried about Iran’s uranium enrichment

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Iran, August 21, 2021—In a joint statement on Thursday, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Britain voiced grave concern about reports that the Iranian regime has accelerated its enrichment of uranium to near-weapons grade level.

The statement comes on the heels of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in which it confirmed that the regime has produced uranium metal enriched up to 20 percent fissile purity and lifted production capacity of uranium enriched to 60 percent, both indications of a weaponized nuclear program.

"Iran must halt activities in violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) without delay," the statement reads in part, according to a Reuters report.

"We urge Iran to return to the negotiations in Vienna as soon as possible with a view to bringing them to a swift, successful conclusion. We have repeatedly stressed that time is on no-one's side," they added.

The expression of concern follows warnings by U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, who described the Iranian regime’s continued push to enrich uranium as "unconstructive and inconsistent with a return to mutual compliance."

"Iran has no credible need to produce uranium metal, which has direct relevance to nuclear weapons development," he said in a statement. "Such escalations will not provide Iran negotiating leverage in any renewed talks on a mutual return to JCPOA compliance and will only lead to Iran's further isolation."

This is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of moves by the Iranian regime to break its nuclear commitments and jeopardize regional and global security.

In June, IAEA director Rafael Grossi expressed concern about the regime’s lack of cooperation and transparency in providing reassurances that the nature of its nuclear program is peaceful.

In July, the regime’s outgoing president Hassan Rouhani said, "Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation can enrich uranium by 20% and 60% and if one day our reactors need it, it can enrich uranium to 90% purity.”

The regime has a decades-long history of hiding its nuclear program, lying to the international community, and cheating on its commitments. The regime has proven time and again that it doesn’t deserve the world’s trust on its nuclear program.

But the gravity of the regime’s nuclear program has taken on new dimensions after the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, a notorious judge who has made a career out of prosecuting and executing dissidents. Raisi brings with him a roster of criminal officials who don’t even care to pretend to respect international norms and values. His cabinet ministers mostly have ties to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the main party driving the nuclear program. His upcoming foreign minister professes to make terrorism a tenet of his diplomacy.

These are not the traits of a regime that wishes to gain the confidence of the international community. Politicians and experts have been warning about the possible directions of Tehran’s nuclear program in the Raisi era.

“The nuclear deal will only be possible and can only survive if the new Iranian leadership will allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to do its job and I highly doubt that Raisi will be supportive of nuclear inspections,” Guy Verhofstadt, a Member of the European Parliament and a former Prime Minister of Belgium, said at the Free Iran World Summit on July 12. “We should not expect Iran to open up to the West. Raisi in fact hates our democratic values and let us not forget that he is under U.S. sanctions over a past that includes the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners.”

But so far, diplomats from states involved in the nuclear deal have only voiced concern about Tehran’s continued belligerence and are pushing for a quick return to the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Is that enough?

“The regime is cheated on every agreement it has made, the NPT, the safeguards agreement, the additional protocol, and the JCPOA, even before the U.S. withdrawal,” said Robert Joseph, Former U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security at the same summit. “Who can believe that the regime does not now have a covert program, something it has maintained for 40 years? Who would sign yet another agreement with a party that has cheating in its DNA?”

Naturally, the regime will demand concessions in return for rolling back some of the measures it has taken. The regime has set a bad precedent of taking concessions from the West and reneging on its own obligations. That is bound to get a lot worse under Raisi.

“The selection of Raisi… proves that making concessions to the regime will not change their behavior,” Former U.S. National Security John Bolton said at the Free Iran summit. “They view concessions by the West as a sign of weakness, and you know historically it is not strength that is provocative when viewed by authoritarian regimes; weakness is provocative. So, the more weakness we show, the more likely the ayatollah will cause trouble.”

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. Without backing concerns with concrete action, the West will give the regime free pass to continue its belligerence. Responding to 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.

Ultimately, the world must recognize that a regime that has built its power on death and destruction cannot be cajoled into relinquishing its ambitions for a nuclear deterrent. The nuclear threat, along with all other malign activities of the regime, are vital to its survival. So, the threat will only go away with the regime itself.

“There is only one solution that is left that will work and that is regime change in Iran. Everything else has been tried,” Senator Joseph Lieberman said at the Free Iran summit. “It is obvious that the regime itself will not change. So, the people of Iran, with the support of all of us outside of Iran, must change the regime.”

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