EU Tries to Save 'Nuclear Deal' with Iran

News:

On August 4, 2022, a meeting of representatives of the countries participating in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is scheduled in Vienna. JCPOA - a political agreement between Iran and the so-called. 5+1 group, which includes five permanent members of the UN Security Council (USA, Russia, China, Great Britain, France) and Germany.

As a mediator, the EU also plans to take part in another attempt to save the 2015 accords, known as the "nuclear deal".

The European Union is making a final push to save the Iran nuclear deal by calling all the negotiators together for a surprise and sudden resumption of talks.

A US official familiar with the matter confirmed that US special envoy for Iran Rob Malley would attend the talks. (Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/iran-nuclear-talk-resume-thursday/)

Comment:

Concern about the development of Iran's nuclear program is just a false pretext in the US struggle with its geopolitical rivals for the possession of Iran's colossal oil and gas reserves. The Iranian regime has always maintained and continues to maintain that its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is not going to produce an atomic bomb. Despite this, the Western capitalist superpowers, led by the United States, consider the mere possibility of Iran gaining the potential to create nuclear weapons as one of the main threats on the agenda of global world problems.

The "nuclear threat" along with "militant rhetoric against the West and Israel" became the reason for the adoption of a number of UN Security Council resolutions on the imposition of sanctions against Iran. They were not limited to the freezing of foreign assets and the deprivation of access to technologies and equipment for the extraction, enrichment and processing of uranium. It was also forbidden to sell him heavy weapons and anything that could contribute to the creation of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear charges.

The biggest damage to the Iranian economy was inflicted as a result of the embargo on oil imports from Iran. After all, the sale of oil and gas provides three-quarters of foreign exchange earnings to its budget. Despite the “exceptions for humanitarian purposes and legitimate economic activities” announced in the resolutions, the economic crisis that followed the sanctions led to the impoverishment of most of the Iranian population, and millions of Iranians were on the verge of starvation.

The embargo, which limited access to cheap Iranian oil, has caused economic problems in other parts of the world, including in industrialized European countries dependent on energy supplies. Therefore, they made attempts to find ways to bypass or remove sanctions from Iran. One of these compromise solutions was the July 14, 2015 political agreement between Iran and a group of states known as 5+1, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), after the final conclusion and implementation of which, US sanctions could be lifted from Iran, the European Union and the UN Security Council.

The agreement provided for Iran to limit its uranium reserves and enrichment capabilities, as well as IAEA access to all nuclear facilities and full online control over the use of radioactive materials exclusively for peaceful purposes. It was also provided that the European Union and the United States refrain from sanctions against Iran, the repeated or new introduction of which will be considered by them "as a basis for terminating the fulfillment of their obligations in whole or in part."

In October 2017, former US President Trump announced that he would no longer assure Congress that the JCPOA was in the interests of the United States, and on May 8, 2018, he announced his country's withdrawal from the agreement. Saying that the United States has evidence that Iran continues to develop nuclear weapons, Trump announced plans to restore sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased withdrawal from the treaty and the construction of a new generation of centrifuges to increase uranium reserves and enrich it above the level stipulated by the nuclear deal. The leaders of the European countries participating in the agreement, expressing regret at Trump's demarche and noting that the JCPOA is not a bilateral agreement between the United States and Iran, called on Tehran to remain committed to the agreement.

With the advent of the Biden administration to the White House, the United States returned to participation in the JCPOA. However, judging by the words of the US representative that their "expectations are modest", and also by the statements of the representative of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization about the activation of hundreds of new and improved centrifuges, the JCPOA agreement is doomed to failure.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Abu Ibrahim Bilal
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Ukraine