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Lifting entire sanctions against Iran impossible

Politics Materials 1 April 2015 08:05 (UTC +04:00)
Iran and the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) have started the last round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program to reach a political understanding on the case by the end of March.
Lifting entire sanctions against Iran impossible

Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 1

By Dalga Khatinoglu, Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iran and the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) have started the last round of talks on Tehran's nuclear program to reach a political understanding on the case by the end of March.

One of the main obstacles on the way to a comprehensive nuclear agreement between the parties is the issue of lifting the sanctions immediately.

While Iran insists that the UN Security Council resolution concerning the nuclear program of Iran to be annulled, the West will not agree that, Behrooz Bayat, a former consultant at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Trend March 31.

Taking the letter of 47 US senators to the Government of Iran into consideration, the Iranian negotiators are demanding guaranties to make sure that the US remains adhered to the agreement after the tenure of President Barack Obama and insists on removing the sanctions for this purpose, Bayat said.

However, he underlined that as long as the IAEA has not confirmed Iran's nuclear program as being exclusively peaceful the Security Council will not cancel the resolutions and lift the sanction. This means the parties need another formula in order to give Iran an assurance in this regard, the expert said.

Of the 35 sanctions imposed on Iran, the U.S. put in place 25 and the UN and EU five each. The motivation for the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran during a period from 1979 to 2012, includes a vast range of topics; including abuse of human rights inside the country and Syria, supporting and sponsoring the terrorism, money laundering and its nuclear program.

Bayat believes that a gradual suspension and eventually lifting of the sanctions depends on the behavior of the Islamic Republic.
The expert also underlined that the both governments in Iran and the US have the political will to hammer out an agreement.

He also added that in the major technical issues both sides are close to an agreement.

"In particular in the issue of enrichment capacity the sides seem to have arrived on a number of centrifuges which helps the Islamic Republic to maintain a face saving, it means, the major part of the existing capacity," Bayat stressed.

He also underlined that since the enrichment activity will be continuing, from the view point of the West there are measures needed to prevent Iran accumulating enriched uranium hexafluoride which could be further enriched to weapon grade uranium and would result in a shorter "break-out time" which the West wants to keep at least one year.

While commenting on the possible settlements on the issue, Bayat said two solutions are feasible: the conversion of the enriched gas into fuel rods or bringing the excess out of Iran, e. g. to Russia.

Taking into account that Iran probably doesn't have enough capacity for the conversion then the most feasible approach would be the transport of Iranian uranium stockpiles to Russia in the frame work of already existing cooperation on these issues between the two countries, he explained.

While responding to a question about strength of a possible accord, he said that as long as there is significant resistance against a nuclear deal in both countries the agreement remains fragile.

The US Government is subject to a tremendous pressure from the US allies in the Mid-East, in particular Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia, he said.

Bayat further argued that it is noteworthy that Netanyahu will undertake whatever he can to undermine an agreement: talking to the US congress via bypassing the Obama administration and denouncing the axis of Teheran-Lausanne-Yemen in analogy to ex-president George W. Bush axis of evils as the main source of danger for the world.

The expert added that whether the agreement remains fragile forever depend very much on the behavior of the Iranian governments in the years to come.

The enemies of a rapprochement between Iran and the US, in both countries, will be waiting for a pretext to challenge the agreements, Bayat said.

Edited by CN

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