Every recent US administration has performed a perverse ritual as it has come into office. All have agreed to undermine US law by signing secret letters stipulating they will not acknowledge something everyone knows: that Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal. Part of the reason for this is to stop people focusing on Israel’s capacity to turn dozens of cities to dust. This failure to face up to the threat posed by Israel’s horrific arsenal gives its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a sense of power and impunity, allowing Israel to dictate terms to others. But one other effect of the US administration’s ostrich approach is that it avoids invoking the US’s own laws, which call for an end to taxpayer largesse for nuclear weapons proliferators.
Nuclear Issue
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2020-12-31
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2020-12-21
The remaining member states to a groundbreaking nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have reiterated their commitment to preserving the agreement and stressed their respective efforts in this regard.
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2020-12-19
Guterres made the remarks in the 10th report on the implementation of Resolution 2231, which will be read out during a Security Council meeting on Tuesday. He hailed the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a testament to the effectiveness of multilateralism, diplomacy and dialogue, saying the agreement is the best way to ensure a comprehensive, long-term and proper solution to Iran's nuclear issue and to help promote regional and international peace and security.
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2020-12-08
In a Monday meeting with Germany’s ambassador to Tehran, Chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mojtaba Zonnoori denounced the European states’ inaction in implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal and their failure to save the JCPOA in practice. “I believe that if Europe, including Germany, acts effectively in defending its commitments under the JCPOA, stand against the US’ excessive demands, and behave responsibly in the face of the ongoing crimes in West Asia, we will have a safe world with minimum tensions and crisis,” the MP added. He pointed to the newly-ratified parliamentary bill on lifting of the sanctions and safeguarding national interests, saying the JCPOA parties have a deadline of two months to prove their goodwill in practical commitment to the deal.
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2020-12-07
Iran’s recent announcement to the IAEA that it intends to install an additional three cascades of advanced centrifuges at the Fuel Enrichment Plant in Natanz is contrary to the JCPoA and deeply worrying. Furthermore, we have taken note, with great concern, of the recent law passed by the Iranian Parliament, which - if implemented - would substantially expand Iran’s nuclear programme and limit IAEA monitoring access. The measures would be incompatible with the JCPoA and Iran’s wider nuclear commitments. If Iran is serious about preserving a space for diplomacy, it must not implement these steps. Such a move would jeopardise our shared efforts to preserve the JCPoA and risks compromising the important opportunity for a return to diplomacy with the incoming US Administration. A return to the JCPoA would also be beneficial for Iran. We will address Iran’s non-compliance within the framework of the JCPoA. We welcome the statements by President-elect Biden on the JCPoA and a diplomatic path to address wider concerns with Iran. This is in all our interests.
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2020-12-07
„Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman says the country will neither negotiate nor compromise on its national security, warning Germany about its efforts to achieve what the US “maximum pressure” policy failed to fulfil. […] “We spent tough years negotiating the JCPOA and the deal was the result of the Iranian nation’s resistance. The JCPOA was finally singed and inserted in UN Security Council Resolution 2231. So, all those who are familiar with international law know that neither will Iran re-negotiate something it has already negotiated, nor will these words change the binding nature of UNSC Resolution 2231 which also applies to the JCPOA.,” said Khatibzadeh. […] He slammed Europe for failing to deliver on its obligations under the nuclear deal. “In fact, it fell upon the Europeans to coordinate the enforcement of the JCPOA. The European countries, including Germany, failed to live up to its obligations even during the years when the US had not yet pulled out of the JCPOA,” he noted. […]“
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2020-12-07
The Europeans have recently said that the missile and regional issues should also be included in any new deal with Iran. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has explicitly pushed for such a deal in his recent interview with Der Spiegel. “A return to the previous agreement will not suffice anyway. There will have to be a kind of ‘nuclear agreement plus,’ which is also in our interest. We have clear expectations of Iran: no nuclear weapons, but also no ballistic missile program that threatens the entire region. Iran also needs to play a different role in the region,” Maas told the German magazine, adding, “We need this agreement precisely because we distrust Iran. I have already coordinated with my French and British counterparts on this.” But Maas didn’t say why Iran should agree to a new deal with the West while the existing one has not been implemented by the very same parties that are now calling for expanding it. Iran has long called on Europe and the U.S. to stop violating the deal and international law. However, the Europeans continued to ignore Iran’s calls, instead of honoring their commitments. And this seems to have enraged Iran’s top diplomat, who has recently told the West to “shut up” if it is unable to “put up”.
Addressing the 6th edition of the Rome Mediterranean Dialogues 2020, Zarif said, “When they are ready to deal with their own problems of their own malign behavior in the region, their malign support for a terrorist regime, then they can start talking about other things.”
However, “as long as they’re not able to put up, they have to shut up,” he concluded.
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2020-12-04
The origin of the Mossad propaganda operation on Fakhrizadeh lies in the early 1990s, when the U.S. and Israel first developed suspicions of Iranian ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon. U.S., British, German and Israeli intelligence analysts had intercepted telexes from Sharif University about various “dual use” technologies — those that could be exploited in a nuclear program but also be applied for non-nuclear use.
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2020-12-02
On December 2, 2020, the Guardian Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran approved a bill passed by the Iranian Parliament, entitled “Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect Iranian Nation’s Interests”. Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf communicated the law to the government for implementation on the same day.
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2020-11-13
This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) newest report on Iran’s nuclear program was leaked, showing a continued rise in Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.