...

Trump’s Iran policy fell short of equivocal IAEA report (exclusive)

Politics Materials 3 September 2017 13:49 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, September 3

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

The Trump administration’s policy of pressure towards Iran was in need of an equivocal report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to push its agenda, a former Iranian parliamentarian believes.

US efforts to wring a favorable IAEA report failed when on August 30 the United Nations nuclear watchdog released its most recent quarterly report confirming for the seventh time that Iran is committed to limits on its nuclear program under the July 2105 nuclear agreement.

With a double-sided report from the IAEA, the US administration would have been able to force more sanctions on Iran by in fact announcing Iran in violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Vahid Ahmadi, who has served as member of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Trend September 3.

According to Ahmadi, when the JCPOA was concluded between the group 5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) and Iran, the US expected to extend it into non-nuclear areas, such as Iran’s military program or regional political developments.

“They alternatively thought that the nuclear deal would be taken as an example to reach more agreements with Iran on other issues…. But these have not come true.”

The former Iranian MP said what the US administration has done so far since the implementation of the deal has amounted to efforts to discredit it by posing more and more sanctions on Iran.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, met with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna August 23 for what she described as a fact-finding mission, which is part of President Donald Trump’s review of the deal Iran made with world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

On the same day, Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif cautioned in a letter to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano that Haley’s visit was intended to sow doubt about the nuclear agreement.

Tags:
Latest

Latest