The United States is wrong on Iran

On May 8, 2018, the Donald Trump administration abrogated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and blatantly breached the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, unilaterally, single handedly and in isolation.

With this step, the United States (US) left Iran with a heavy burden of new JCPOA-emanated obligations vis-à-vis no rights and economic guarantees promised and clearly stipulated there. This was dishonest and deceitful. It then began to leverage economic terrorism, coupled with an ever-increasing barrage of its so-called unilateral sanctions against the Iranian people. It thus not only punished the exemplary behaviour of Iran of maintaining peace and stability through serving the cause of world’s non-proliferation movement, but it also rewarded Isis/ Daesh terrorist groups — and their patrons in the region — who were already defeated by Iran.

The Trump administration is misleading global public opinion, in tune with the US’ old-fashioned colonialist “divide and rule” and post-colonial ‘offshore balancing ‘paradigms, simply to reassert the country’s dwindled domination.

Iran is just doing whatever it can to resist US’ illegitimate, rogue and outlawed activities including, but not limited to, the breach of the JCPOA, the UNSC resolution 2231, and the Paris agreement on climate change.

Washington’s oppressive activities in Iran can be traced back to 1953, when the Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated a coup to remove Iran’s elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. After instituting the rule of the Shah, the US encouraged him to establish a nuclear programme. The US built Iran’s first nuclear reactor in 1967, and the West continued to provide nuclear technology to his government.

After the Shah was toppled in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran under the leadership of the late Imam Khomeini, cancelled his plans for a large nuclear energy sector, retaining only those facilities that had already been established. He also declared that nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) were haram (forbidden in Islam). When Iraq attacked Iran with chemical weapons, with the tacit support of the Ronald Reagan administration, Iran refrained from responding in kind despite having the requisite technology. In 2003, the late Imam Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also issued an unambiguous fatwa against nuclear weapons.

In spite of these facts, successive US administrations imposed sanctions on Iran, demanding that it completely halt uranium enrichment.

It was only during President Barack Obama’s second term that the US sought a temporary truce, leading to the JCPOA. The pact recognised Iran’s right to maintain a civilian nuclear programme, but placed significant restrictions on its size and scope for 10 to 15 years. Most importantly, Tehran reiterated that “under no circumstances” would it “seek… nuclear weapons.” The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was granted unprecedented powers to inspect Iran’s nuclear activities, and has, up to 15 times, verified Tehran’s compliance. Three hundred and eighty five cases of verification under the IAEA additional protocol regime — out of a total of 421 cases — has been done by cooperation of Iran with the agency, under its JCPOA voluntary commitments. Most cases of cooperation with its Complementary Access mechanism also belongs to Iran.

So, Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA can only be interpreted as a message that the US is not interested at all in arms control, but would rather initiate a direct conflict with independent rule-based countries like Iran.

Iran exercised over 13 months of strategic patience and cooperation with all the remaining JCPOA participants, during which it continued to scrupulously fulfil its undertakings under the JCPOA. But the remaining participants failed to compensate and mitigate the distorted balance of the deal.

Iran, thus, issued a statement this May, which stated that despite its restraint, no operational mechanisms were set up to compensate for US sanctions and it was thus left with no choice. “In this regard, the Islamic Republic of Iran does not commit itself to respecting the limits on the keeping of enriched uranium and heavy water reserves at the current stage.”

This wise position is legally supported by paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, which state that there would be no further sanctions; that the US would, in good faith, sustain the JCOPA; that if Iran believed that commitments were not being met, it could refer the issue to the Joint Commission; and the complaining participant could treat the issue as a ground to cease performing its commitments.

Iran’s May announcement is, thus, fully consistent with the provisions of the JCPOA aimed at its balanced implementation. The voluntary measures that were ceased to be performed may be reversed whenever sanctions are lifted and economic-related commitments, especially in banking and oil fields, are implemented.

It is time for the international community to oppose the US’ unlawful behaviour and implement their own commitments. Expecting Iran to unilaterally implement the JCPOA is neither a reasonable, nor a possible, option.

To conclude, the Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to gradually suspend some of its voluntary commitments under the JCPOA — that could include the IAEA Additional Protocol — due to the blatant breach of the agreement by the US. A solution is quite possible once sanctions are lifted — under any creative pretext. President Trump can reverse the course of action by shackling the warmongers in his administration. The JCPOA parties, and other big and emerging powers, who are ready to embrace further international responsibilities, could also sufficiently support this to happen. We should not forget the constructive role of the noble American people and their important say in making the world safer through supporting JCPOA, and a world free from nuclear weapons.

Ali Chegeni is the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to India The views expressed are personal

First Published: Jul 16, 2019 18:44 IST