Economy Long Sacrificed To Nuclear Push, Says Iran Politician

Gantz also said there must be inspections of Iran’s production facilities. Parts manufacturing is not covered by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty under which the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency inspects Iran’s nuclear plants.

Gantz told an online conference Sunday of the Israeli paper Haaretz and the University of California that he was “more optimistic than ever” given Israel’s ‘normalization’ agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.

While these Arab states claimed recognizing the Israeli state follows the Arab Peace Initiative, launched 2002, the API hinged on Israeli recognition of Palestinian rights including statehood. Gantz said the ‘Abraham Accord’ encouraged him in the face of Iran’s efforts to “export its radical ideology” and its “disrupting democratic processes and dismantling countries,” specifically in Iraq and Lebanon.

A long New York Times piece Sunday reported concern among United States intelligence officials over past and possible future Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear program.

Tehran’s ‘Build Back Better’

The officials told the Times that Iran had quickly restored damage after four

Israeli attacks, which alongside killing Tehran’s nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh had led to Iran speeding-up the program, including replacing damaged machines with more advanced ones capable of faster uranium enrichment. One official called it Tehran’s ‘Build Back Better plan,” a wry reference to a slogan of President Joe Biden.

“American officials have warned their Israeli counterparts that the repeated attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities may be tactically satisfying, but they are ultimately counterproductive,” the Times reported.

Recent meetings between US and Israel officials have led to talk of a ‘plan B’ should talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers, due to resume November 29, fail to agree steps for reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

The Israeli government supported previous US president Donald Trump in leaving the JCPOA and imposing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran, but with Biden’s commitment to JCPOA revival Israel has tempered its criticism while continuing attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Times cited US and European officials rueing the Biden administration coming late to the talks in Vienna, three months after taking office, and noting that Biden continuing ‘maximum pressure’ had stiffened the approach of the new administration in Tehran that took office in August.

US looking for ‘other tools’

“Many of Mr Biden’s advisers are doubtful that introducing new sanctions on Iran’s leadership, its military or its oil trade − atop the 1,500 Mr. Trump imposed − would be any more successful than past efforts to pressure Iran to change course,” the Times noted.

This has left the Biden administration looking for a ‘plan B’ while wary of more Israeli attacks. Rob Malley, the White House’s Iran envoy said recently it was “in Iran’s hands to choose,” and that both Biden and secretary of state Antony Blinken had insisted that that “if diplomacy fails, we have other tools − and we will use other tools to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”

Iran immediately rejected recent reports that the US had discussed with Israel a possible interim arrangement under which Washington would rule out punitive action against some third parties paying money owed Iran in return for Tehran freezing some aspects of its nuclear program.

The nuclear talks will resume November 29 with the US in Vienna but taking part indirectly, outside the formal meetings of remaining JCPOA signatories – China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh in his weekly press briefing told reporters that Iran expects others also to attend the talks with “a serious will” to reach “a comprehensive and practical agreement.”

Talks aimed at restoring Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) between Iran and world powers will resume next week in Vienna after a five-month freeze by Iran.

The new government in office since August has adopted a tough position in recent weeks demanding the United States remove “all sanctions at once” and provide guarantees not leave the agreement in the future.

Former President Donald Trump abandoned the JCPOA in 2018 and imposed fresh sanctions on Iran, which retaliated by increasing uranium enrichment and reducing international monitoring by the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

The foreign ministry spokesman refused to comment about recent media reports that the Biden Administration is entertaining the idea of an ‘interim agreement’ with Iran over the nuclear issue that would likely involve freeing some of Tehran’s frozen funds in exchange for limits on its uranium enrichment. Khateebzadeh said he would not comment on “vague speculations in the media.”

Khateebzadeh also confirmed that IAEA chief Rafael Grossi will arrive in Tehran Monday night to resolve “technical issues” and urged the international agency to stay out of politics, while saying that recent limitations on IAEA’s activities are because other countries have not condemned Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran has not allowed the IAEA to reactivate its monitoring cameras at a facility in Karaj, near Tehran, after an apparent drone attack that Tehran blames on Israel. The facility produces centrifuge machines for uranium enrichment, that Tehran has increased to 20 and 60 percent since 2019, stockpiling more than 200 kilograms of the fissile material.

The IAEA Board of Governors is meeting this week and the French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian called on the agency to send a strong message to Iran for its lack of cooperation with the UN watchdog. Khatibzadeh dismissed the statement as “posturing in the media” by some countries and said all the JCPOA participants should focus on removing US sanctions.

Khatibzadeh was asked by the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency to respond to recent US statements that if the Vienna nuclear talks fail, the Biden Administration would be ready to resort to “other options”. He replied, “We have seen all the options they have and the results in Afghanistan. We don’t think they really believe what they are saying.”

Speaking in Bahrain at the annual Manama Dialogue, Eyal Hulata urged attendees to "think how much bolder and dangerous it will be with a nuclear umbrella, should Iran achieve its nuclear ambitions."

Israel considers Iran an existential threat, and has warned that it would act with military force if needed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran is set to renew nuclear talks with world powers this month, after the 2015 accord collapsed following the US withdrawal from the agreement in 2018.

Hulata also announced he'll be travelling to the United Arab Emirates later on Sunday, where Israel's energy minister is set to sign a declaration of intent with her Jordanian counterpart to build a solar field in Jordan that will provide energy to Israel, and a desalination plant to provide water to Jordan.

The Manama Dialogue takes place each year in Bahrain, a small island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia that's home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Report by AP

Herzog will meet with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Prince Charles of Wales and members of parliament.

In an opinion article in The Sunday Telegraph, Herzog called on the UK to engage in “an urgent dialogue” with “the moderate nations of the Middle East...on how stop Iran” from wasting time in nuclear talks and race toward a nuclear capability.

"Iran does not want dialogue," Herzog wrote. "It is exploiting the world's willingness to negotiate to buy time. Israel cannot allow the fundamentalists of Tehran to acquire a nuclear bomb.”

Israel is skeptical about the Biden Administration policy of negotiating a revivial of the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as JCPOA, concerned that the United States will make critical concessions without permanently banning Iran from producing nuclear weapons.

Sunni Arab states in the region share Israel’s concerns and last year’s Abraham Accords were partly motivated by a common desire to forge alliances against Tehran.

Kayhan, financed and published under direct supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khameni’s office, had been previously editorially consistent in opposing the 2015 deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). The newspaper was responding to a report in Axios news website Wednesday that United States and Israeli officials had discussed the idea. The JCPOA was itself preceded by an interim agreement in 2013 under which Iran limited uranium enrichment in return for some easing of multilateral sanctions.

Kayhan said Tehran would not allow the US return to the 2015 nuclear deal, which it left in 2018, "by releasing a few billion dollars of frozen assets." While it long criticized the previous administration of President Hasan Rouhani for reaching and implementing the JCPOA, Kayhan now gave a more positive assessment of the “clever” new team under President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi).

"The US must effectively lift all main sanctions, provide a guarantee not to renege on its commitments again," the newspaper wrote. Without this, Iran would “not allow the US to become a member of the JCPOA again and find access to the trigger mechanism for automatic revival of sanctions.”

Full hands

Kayhan suggested Iran would resume talks with world powers in Vienna, on November 29 after a lapse since June, with “full hands,” referring to Iran’s expanding nuclear program – including stockpiles of 20-percent and 60-percent enriched uranium – and having survived the ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions introduced by previous president Donald Trump in 2018 and continued by President Joe Biden.

The new government in Tehran is also insisting that the Vienna talks will focus on the lifting of US sanctions in a verifiable manner rather than on further discussions on Iran’s nuclear program.

Referring to Tehran's uranium stockpile, the US Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley said Friday that Iran was "approaching the point of no return" for reviving the JCPOA. "Iran's advances are spreading alarm across the region... that's what's making the clock tick faster and making all of us say that the time is short for a return to the JCPOA," Malley warned.

An interim agreement might allow the US to ease back from its current position – Axios suggested the idea had come from a European state. The US source cited by Axios said an interim deal might see Iran freeze some enrichment while the US lifted its threats of punitive action against third parties over releasing money owed to Iran and perhaps allowed waivers on humanitarian goods to Iran.

Changing times

Speaking to Mehr news agency Saturday, Manouchehr Mottaki, foreign minister under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Tehran should take step-by-step actions restricting its nuclear activities if the United States eased sanctions, but he suggested the scenario was unlikely.

Former Iranian diplomat Kourosh Ahmadi reminded Etemad-e Melli newspaper of the interim deal struck in Geneva November 2013, which saw Iran freeze 20 percent enrichment in return for the lifting of some sanctions, which at that time were levied multilaterally, including by the European Union and the United Nations Security Council.

But present conditions are different from 2013, Ahmadi noted, stressing the situation had been changed by Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA, which had led to worries in Tehran that such action could be repeated and had increased the wariness of international companies and banks to deal with Iran given the risk of punitive US action against them.

Also speaking to Etemad-e Melli, international relations commentator Hasan Beheshtipour backed an interim agreement and step-by-step procedures, with both the US and Iran able to step back if the other party reneged.

All remaining parties to the JCPOA – China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom – have stressed the need to revive the treaty as it is; although any implementation would require an agreed timetable.