Conservative Iranian Politician Asks President To Restore Nuclear Deal

Danon who is now chairman of the World Likud warned that Israel is ready to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. “We hope Israel would not be the only one bearing the burden of dealing with the threat coming from Iran,” he said, “but even if it would be only us, we are ready and determined.”

Danon highlighted recent reports that Islamic Republic had a large network of agents in Turkey trying to kidnap and kill Israeli tourists.

“It's unheard of that you have a regime that is exporting violence, and they are doing it publicly,” he said.

Danon, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2015-2020, was a member of the Knesset representing the right-wing Likud Party and served as Deputy Minister of Defense.

In an interview with Iran International’s television host Fardad Farahzad on June 15, Danon was asked if recent killings of individuals serving in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and attributed to Israel will not provoke retaliation. Danon did not attempt to deny the possible Israeli role in the sensational events.

“According to reports, those people who were killed (in Iran) were not innocent. They were heavily involved in destruction, promoting violence in the region. I cannot acknowledge who is taking responsibility for eliminating those threats, but I can tell you that our world is much safer when they are not around us,” he said.

At least four officers and weapons experts serving for the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) have been killed or died in mysterious circumstances in Iran since May 22. In some of the cases the Islamic Republic has indirectly accused Israel, while in other cases it has claimed the deaths were natural.

The quandary Iranian security and military officials face is that acknowledging Israel’s ability to eliminate individuals on Iranian soil is extremely embarrassing for them after insisting for years that they are invincible and in total control of events not only inside the country but around the region.

Suspected Israeli operations against Iranian nuclear and military sites as well as the killing of key individuals began in July 2020, with several spectacular operations that blew up extremely well-defended sites and the Hollywood-style assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist.

Speaking about the stalled nuclear talks with Iran the former UN envoy said that it was a mistake for the United States to pull out of the 2015 nuclear agreement, “but it will be a grave mistake to re-enter the JCPOA, because basically whatever happens, the Iranians will continue with their nuclear ambitions, but they would have the legitimacy of democracies from all around the world to continue to do that.”

While Republicans found more reason to criticize President Joe Biden's approach to Iran, Democrats who also sounded pessimistic continued to support the diplomatic option.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida told Iran International's corrspondent Arash Alaei that he did not believe “a deal that is acceptable” was “possible with the current Iranian leadership,” and that “there may not be a way to keep a government that’s determined to build a nuclear capability from acquiring it …”

Rubio said Iran would “become a nuclear power, whether there’s a deal or not – I think the question with the deal is whether they’ll have more money to do it faster,” in an implicit reference to a lifting of US sanctions in case of an agreement.

Marc Rod, Washington reporter of the Jewish Insider, in tweets cited Rubio saying the administration of President Joe Biden lacked a “plan B,” referring to a back-up approach should diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal fail.

Malley was briefing the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday on the Biden administration’s current assessment of efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Year-long talks between Iran and world powers to restore the JCPOA have been paused since March.

‘No way…without diplomacy’

Both supporters and opponents of the JCPOA have in recent days suggested that Biden’s policy is failing, with JCPOA critics insisting a ‘plan B’ is now needed.

Pessimism around the chances of the nuclear talks suspended in Vienna since March have increased compared to three weeks ago when Malley testified in the Senate.

Defending the administration’s approach, Democratic Party senator Chris Murphy told Iran International that the White House had been consistent “there is no way to protect the United States, no way to stop Iran from a path to a nuclear weapon without diplomacy, without this deal.”

Murphy insisted that the current situation – with Iran since 2019 expanding its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits – resulted from President Donald Trump in 2018 removing the US from the agreement.

‘Absolute dumpster fire’

“We all know,” Murphy said, “that Iran has been moving rapidly to a point where it has enough fissile material in order to make a weapon – and that has only occurred because of the Trump administration’s decision to blow up this deal, and to my mind we have to get back in it as quickly as possible.”

Asked by Rod how he thought the administration assessed the chances of agreement to restore the JCPOA, Murphy said: “The chances of a breakthrough are much smaller today than they were six months ago.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen, another Democrat, expressed hope to Rod that the Biden administration was still serious about diplomacy. He said that any ‘plan B’ would include a military option and “likely result in a lot of Americans getting killed.”

Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware, said to be close to President Biden said, “The new regime in Iran has refused to make reasonable accommodations to get back into the JCPOA. I think their demands at the negotiating table that are public and their actions that are public are gravely concerning and I'm not optimistic about the path.”

Senator Ted Cruz, a long-time opponent of the 2015 deal (the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and staunch Trump ally, described Malley’s briefing as “quite concerning” and called Biden’s approach an “absolute dumpster fire.”

The Article 90 Committee -- a parliamentary body mandated by the Constitution to pursue complaints concerning the work of government institutions -- presented a report on Wednesday, claiming that Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Salehi deliberately ignored a December 2020 legislation entitled "Strategic Action To Eliminate Sanctions and Defend Iranian Nation's Interests.”

Touted as putting a clear legal responsibility on the government to escalate the nuclear crisis, the law was aimed at boosting uranium enrichment and restricting international nuclear inspections, if JCPOA signatories did not scrap all sanctions on Iran, including those related to human rights.

The committee said that since the refusal of these two former officials to implement the law on several occasions has been proven, the case will be "sent to the judicial authorities".

Former president Rouhani and his ministers have been threatened before with prosecution for a host of alleged mistakes and shortcomings by hardliners dominating the parliament.

The parliament passed the legislation following the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, arguing that Iran had gained nothing from the 2015 deal and even blamed it for the assassination.

Bolton told Iran International’s Fardad Farahzad on Tuesday that if the Biden administration returns to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, it will make a big mistake because Israel will feel threatened, intensifying the proxy conflict between the Islamic Republic and Israel to a full-fledged war. 

The possibility of reviving the JCPOA is very low, and if the Vienna talks fail, on the one hand, "Israel or others" may take covert or overt action to stop Iran's nuclear program, and on the other hand, sanctions against the Islamic Republic will increase.

In response to a question about the joint naval drills between the US Navy and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, he noted that the Iranian threat in the region has reached a very serious point but the possibility of a full-blown war in the short term is still very low, adding that there is no real possibility of a war between Iran and the US because it is tantamount to “suicide” for the Islamic Republic.

US Central Command said on Tuesday that the naval forces of the US and the UAE have started a 10-day drill, codenamed Iron Defender.

Earlier on Tuesday, Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy told Iran International that "It would be tragic if we didn't get back into the nuclear agreement. I have yet to hear Republicans present a plausible alternative for how we keep the region and the world safe from nuclear weapons without this diplomatic agreement."

Answering a question by our correspondent Samira Gharaei at the State department briefing on Tuesday about claims by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that the Islamic Republic has proposed new initiatives aimed at reviving the nuclear deal, spokesman Ned Price implicitly confirmed the news but avoided directly commenting on Iran's proposals. 

Price reiterated that Washington and its European partners are ready to conclude an agreement in Vienna for the mutual compliance with the JCPOA, noting that for that to happen, “Tehran needs to decide to drop demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA”, suggesting that the new proposals by Tehran include demands extraneous to the 2015 accord. 

He confirmed that Tehran and Washington are engaged in indirect regular contact via Enrique Mora, the European Union coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, saying, “We await a constructive response from the Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA.” 

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Earlier in the day, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization released a copy of its answers to IAEA questions about origins of uranium found at three undeclared locations, saying “sabotage” is the only explanation. 

The document that was released to the media on Tuesday was earlier submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which rejected the explanations as "technically not credible".

Iran agreed March 5 to provide written explanations by March 20 of long-standing issues in its nuclear work before 2003, and to clear up remaining queries by June 21. The latest quarterly report by the UN watchdog expressed dissatisfaction with Iran’s response to agency over sites not declared as part of the nuclear program where inspectors detected traces of uranium. This led to a resolution critical of Iran’s nuclear cooperation by the agency’s board of governors on June 8. 

In its answers, Iran maintained that the only plausible explanation for such traces is probably sabotage by foreign elements at Marivan, Varamin and Turquzabad sites, pointing out that the Varamin center, near the capital Tehran, was "never" used for nuclear activities.  

Iran said the IAEA’s claims about storage of nuclear material and/or conduct of nuclear-related activities, at Varamin are not supported by valid proofs and are misleading, noting that “the initial activities conducted in this location had been exploitation of sodium sulphate from the soil and water of the surrounding region.” 

For Marivan, which is a misnomer as the site is located near the city of Abadeh in the southwestern Fars province, Iran said the origin of the particles is "unknown" and insists the site was used for "the exploitation of fireclay through a contract with a foreign company decades ago" hence the IAEA’s “conclusion is absolutely false, unrealistic and biased.”

Iran claims it carried out its own investigation in Turquzabad and "did not find the origin of the particles" reported by the IAEA. 

Later on Tuesday, the head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said that Iran’s contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency are still underway, reiterating that Iran will act based on the safeguards protocol. 

The resolution called on Iran to engage with the IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, without delay and expressed “profound concern” at Iran’s failure to satisfy the agency over the traces of uranium.

Following the resolution, Iran retaliated, telling the IAEA it plans to remove more monitoring equipment, but intends to maintain a basic level of monitoring and inspectors’ access as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

The resolution comes with year-long talks paused since March between Iran and five world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).