Page 6 - DMEA Week 23 2022

DMEA POLICY & SECURITY DMEA

Europe, US to rebuke Iran

for lack of cooperation

MIDDLE EAST IRAN is to be rebuked by Europe and the US advanced than at any point in the past.” They add
for a lack of cooperation with the UN nuclear that Iran’s accumulation of enriched uranium
watchdog. has no “credible civilian justification”.
The move comes with negotiations between The three countries further state: “Iran’s
Tehran and the major powers over reviving nuclear advances are not only dangerous and
the 2015 nuclear deal - designed to curb Iran’s illegal, they risk unravelling the deal that we
nuclear development programme to ensure it have so carefully crafted together to restore the
stays entirely civilian - stalled. It could irritate nuclear deal.
Iran and make it that much harder to find a way The more Iran is advancing and accumulat-
to restart the negotiations over the nuclear agree- ing knowledge with irreversible consequences,
ment, known as the JCPOA. the more difficult it is to come back to the deal.”
However, June 8 brought a report from Ira- And they state: “Neither the IAEA nor the
nian state TV that Iranian foreign minister Hos- international community know how many cen-
sein Amir-Abdollahian had said that Tehran has trifuges [for enriching uranium] Iran has in its
presented a new proposal to the US to revive the inventory, how many were built where they are
deal. located precisely at the point it is expanding its
The rebuke will come in the form of a motion programme and component manufacturing and
to be voted on at a board meeting of the nuclear centrifuge assembling capabilities.”
watchdog, the International Atomic Energy On June 9, Iran disconnected two IAEA cam-
Agency (IAEA), in Vienna. eras monitoring its nuclear sites, the country’s
However, it will not lead to Iran’s non-compli- atomic energy agency said.
ance with IAEA inspectors being referred to the However, the IAEA has not been receiving
UN security council, nor to an extension of sanc- data from such cameras for more than a year. It
tions on Iran. The Iranians remain under heavy has an agreement that it should be kept on mem-
sanctions given that the JCPOA is effectively not ory cards so that it can be handed over later.
functioning. If it can be reinstated, the US would The disconnection came ahead of the meet-
remove many sanctions that are hurting the Ira- ing where the decision to rebuke Iran was taken.
nian economy. The motion that will go to a vote is quite
The fact that the Europeans and Americans mildly worded, possibly to make sure it receives
feel a rebuke is needed is a reflection of growing the required two-thirds majority of the 35-mem-
anxiety that Iran is not providing the insights the ber board to pass.
IAEA inspectors require to declare its nuclear Russian diplomats criticised the motion and
programme is simply civilian. said they would not be associated with it. China
Iran has gradually reduced the IAEA’s access is likely to oppose it as well.
to its nuclear programme since former US pres- The nuclear deal talks have become severely
ident Donald Trump in May 2018 essentially bogged down over the US refusal to lift its desig-
wrecked the multilateral JCPOA by unilaterally nation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
pulling Washington out of it. Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organisation
In a joint statement to the IAEA board, the (FTO).
three European signatories to the nuclear deal— Iran is also worried that the US president who
the UK, France and Germany—also condemn follows incumbent Joe Biden could simply tear
Iran’s broader attitude to non-proliferation, up the reinstated nuclear deal, the way Trump
saying: “Iran’s nuclear programme is now more did the original deal. ™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 09•June•2022