Page 5 - DMEA Week 22 2022

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

having enough enriched uranium for at least one Greece’s foreign minister complained to the
nuclear bomb – though weaponising it – some- Iranian ambassador to Athens about the “violent
thing Tehran claims it has no ambitions to do – taking over of two Greek-flagged ships” by the
might take a few more years. IRGC.
One possibility for an interim deal to preserve “These acts effectively amount to acts of
but not fully restart the JCPOA, in which Iran piracy,” a Greek foreign ministry statement said,
is supposed to verifiably keep its nuclear pro- calling for the immediate return of the ships and
gramme in the civilian sphere in return for the their crews.
lifting of economic sanctions, would see Iran Tensions between Iran and the West might
firstly stop producing uranium enriched to 20% also have been further aggravated by an “acci-
and 60% uranium-235 and limit itself to produc- dent” at Iran’s high-security Parchin complex on
ing uranium enriched to less than 5%, and, sec- May 25 that left one engineer dead and another
ondly, return to compliance with an additional injured.
protocol so that the International Atomic Energy The New York Times reported on May 29
Agency (IAEA) could again verify that Iran was that the so-called accident was an attack using
not producing centrifuges for a clandestine quadcopter suicide drones that fitted a pattern
enrichment facility. of Israeli operations against Iranian military and
For its part, the US would drop sanctions on nuclear development infrastructure. The facil-
purchases of Iran’s oil and lift sanctions on Iran’s ity is reportedly a site where Iran is developing
financial institutions, including its central bank. drone technology.
Such a possible interim arrangement was on According to the NYT, Israel has also
May 31 described by Seyed Hossein Mousavian, informed the US that it was behind the assassi-
Middle East security and nuclear policy special- nation of an IRGC colonel, Sayyad Khodai. He
ist at Princeton University, and a former chief of was shot by gunmen on motorbikes as he was
Iran’s National Security Foreign Relations Com- getting out of his car outside his home in Tehran
mittee, in an opinion piece for Middle East Eye. on May 22.
Hossein Mousavian wrote: “The reality is that An unnamed intelligence official was cited
Israel, the US and Iran are already in a shadow as stating that Israel wanted the killing to serve
war, one that has been playing out for years on as a warning to Tehran to cease targeting Israeli
land, sea, air and in cyberspace. Biden’s Iran citizens abroad.
negotiator told the congressional hearing that On May 26, the IRGC commander, Maj
‘nuclear talks aren’t dead, but almost’. Gen Hossein Salami, said the killing would be
avenged. “Our enemies should wait. Our reac-
Response tions will be harsh and we will definitely make
That shadow war played out in public this week the enemy regret its action,” Salami said, accord-
as Iran seized two Greek tankers in helicop- ing to Press TV.
ter-launched operations in the Persian Gulf. The In February, Israel reportedly sent six quad-
move appeared to be a response to Greece assist- copter drones to attack an Iranian military
ing the US by grabbing an Iranian oil tanker in drone manufacturing facility near Kermanshah.
the Mediterranean in a sanctions-enforcement In retaliation, Iran launched a missile strike on
case earlier in the week. buildings inside Iraq said to have been used by
The taking of the Greek tankers – the Prudent Israeli intelligence to launch the attack on Ker-
Warrior and the Delta Poseidon – marked the manshah, according to regional reports.
first such action in several months in the Gulf, Meanwhile, an interim deal is seen as a pos-
but tensions between Iran, the US and allies of sible saviour of the 2015 accord and potentially
Washington are on the rise with the stalling of provide the basis for full compliance by both
efforts to secure a reinstatement of the JCPOA. sides after the US elections this November.™

Week 22 02•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5