First crisis between Joe Biden and the government of Irá …

By Kim Sengupta *

Iran’s deal with international powers over nuclear program heads to first major crisis since Joe Biden’s election, Tehran being ready to prevent the UN from carrying out rapid inspections of the sites from next week. Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it will end the vast system of controls from February 23 unless the new US administration begins to lift sanctions imposed by Donald trump. President Biden has indicated that he wants to join the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) which has been abandoned by Trump, but has stipulated that Iran must reverse the measures it had recently taken in violation of the agreement.

The impending stalemate led to a wave of diplomatic activity, with Angela Merkel urging Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a Wednesday call to remove planned restrictions on inspections and return to compliance with the agreement. Rouhani, according to his office, urged European states to take an initiative on sanctions. Iran has proposed that the foreign policy chief of the European Union, Josep borrell, who is also the head of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA, he would have to choreograph Iran and the United States to fulfill their obligations.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, you will receive your British and German counterparts, Dominic Raab and Heiko Maas, for discussions on the nuclear deal this week, and the US Secretary of State, Anthony blinken, it will join with a video link. Rohani and the Swiss President Guy Parmelin They discussed the possibility of expanding a Swiss chain of humanitarian supplies to Iran, which was established after the Trump administration implemented financial sanctions for trade with Tehran. Iran has also sought intermediaries for the nuclear deal in the Middle East. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, met Rohani and the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Javad ZarifMonday in Tehran. Zarif had also met the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs, Fuad hossein.

But diplomatic efforts were made against a background of growing tension. On the same day that Tehran informed the IAEA of the inspection restrictions, the Ayatollah Ali Khameini He warned that President Biden must take decisive action if the JCPOA is to survive. Earlier in the week, a missile salvo was fired at a US base in Erbil, northern Iraq, killing a military contractor and injuring a soldier. The attack was claimed by a Shiite militia allied with Tehran who said it was in retaliation for the killings of their leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and the Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani by the United States. At the end of last week, Saudi Arabia said it had foiled an attack on an airport in Abha, in the southwest of the country, by the Iranian-backed Houthis of Yemen.

The latest sequence of events has turned what was seen as an encouraging start to the process of re-entering the United States into the deal after Trump’s electoral defeat. The inauguration of Biden, the vice president of the administration who signed the deal, appeared to pave the way for the United States to reintegrate into the JCPOA. Your envoy to Iran, Robert malley, helped negotiate the nuclear deal; your national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had met with officials in Tehran as the signing of the agreement approached, and his candidate for the leadership of the CIA, William burns, is a veteran diplomat who was never an Iranian hawk.

One of the first acts of the new administration was withdraw the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its Gulf Strike Group in what was seen as a signal to Tehran of a decrease in tensions. But both the United States and the Western European signatories of the JCPOA (Great Britain, France and Germany) have expressed deep concern over a series of measures taken by Tehran. This includes the 20% uranium enrichment and the production of unenriched metal uranium which has little civilian use but can be used to build a nuclear bomb core.

The question posed is whether the Iranians seek influence through their seemingly tough stance and the actions of allied armed groups before negotiations with the United States on the nuclear deal begin. “Who wouldn’t? I think this leverage game will continue and I think Iran has this geopolitical superiority to do it because it did it in Iraq and Syria with the mobilization of friendly forces to take advantage of political positions, ”he said. Keyhan Barzegar, president of politics and international relations at Islamic University of Azad in Iran.

“These forces are reliable and I believe Iran will continue to do so. The nuclear issue is more complicated. Iran has its influence on that which is 5% nuclear activity plus 20% uranium enrichment, and there is this February 23 deadline which has already been extended once. . “Speaking during a discussion on the nuclear deal at Royal Institute of United Services (RUSI) in London, Dr Barzegar said: “The United States is influenced by sanctions, as we know it. Maybe both sides think they have an advantageous situation. But it is a very dangerous game, because it will leave both countries in a domino situation which they will feel they have to continue. Iran also thinks it survived the maximum pressure policy [de Trump] And the sanctions did not have that impact to change Iran’s behavior. They are linked to Iran’s deterrent power, and since there are threats to Iran’s national security, the government could justify the legitimacy of continuing this policy. “

Rohani told Merkel in her appeal, according to German and Iranian officials, that any attempt by the United States to extend the JCPOA to other topics such as Iran’s missile program, as has been discussed, was “an impossible proposition”. Seyed Hossein Moussavian, who was a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiation team and is currently at Princeton University specializing in nuclear safety and security in the Middle East, argued that trying to incorporate missiles into a new agreement would fail. “It would be a discriminatory policy, leaving Israel with hundreds of nuclear bombs; missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers, capable of nuclear warheads. Leaving Saudi Arabia with 3,300 3,500 kilometers of Chinese missile range and negotiating only with Iran to dismantle its missile capability, which has a range of 2,000 kilometers, and has no chance of success, “he said. he says.

Iran’s economy, however, has suffered badly from the crippling effect of US sanctions, and many high-profile trade ties forging with China and Russia will not make up for that. A senior Iranian diplomat who participated in the JCPOA negotiations said: “We cannot deny the fact that the economic war that Trump has launched against our country has caused a lot of damage. The sanctions are unfair and are also a blow that must end. We know people from Mr. Biden’s team who have worked to make the JCPOA a reality and want it to be successful. We must take advantage of it ”.

Of The independent From Great Britain. Special for Page12

Translation: Celita Doyhambéhère