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As Iranian officials were meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week, simultaneously, Iran’s regime was working out deals with Russia’s government to guarantee uranium deliveries as part of its ongoing weapon’s development program, according to foreign intelligence sources speaking to Fox New Digital.
According to sources, the latest development is a significant setback to the ongoing negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, given that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to return enriched uranium it received from Tehran if an atomic deal does not fall through.
The United States State Department neither confirmed nor denied the reports when asked.
“We will not comment on purported secret intelligence reports, but in any event, the JCPOA has not been on the agenda for months,” said a State Department spokesperson to Fox News.
According to experts familiar with the negotiations over the 2015 Iran nuclear program, one of the terms in the agreement included Russia storing Tehran’s enriched uranium to prevent the regime from constructing a nuclear warhead.
Foreign intelligence sources told Fox News that as part of the deal between the two governments, “Russia has undertaken to return all the enriched uranium to Iran as quickly as possible if, for any reason, the U.S. withdraws from the agreement.”
According to experts familiar with Russia and its role in Iran’s nuclear program, Moscow benefits as a participant in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and is trying to stall things and make other signatories reliant on it for a deal to go through.
Asked by Fox News about the secret deals between Tehran and Moscow over the reports of shipments of enriched uranium, Mojtaba Babaei, a spokesperson for the Islamic Republic mission at the United Nations, said that “there’s no information about the claim.”
“Massimo Aparo, deputy director general and head of the Department of Safeguards visited Iran last week and checked the alleged enrichment rate. Based on Iran’s assessment, the alleged enrichment percentage between Iran and the IAEA is resolved. Due to the IAEA report being prepared before his trip, his trip’s results are not in it, and hopefully, the IAEA director general will mention it in his oral report to the board of governors,” said Babaei.
The Islamic Republic official also noted that Iran “has no plans to make nuclear weapons because its military doctrine prohibits the use of weapons of mass destruction in any form.”
Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News that the reported side deals between Tehran and Moscow over its nuclear program “demonstrate the risks of depending on Moscow as a participant or guarantor in a JCPOA-like arrangement. The geopolitical context has fundamentally shifted with its invasion of Ukraine.”
“P5+1 [China, France, Russia, Britain, U.S., and Germany] under these conditions of great power conflict is not a viable diplomatic platform. Iran has leverage over Russia in 2023 that it did not have in 2015 with its supply of arms. It’s in this dynamic that the Kremlin cannot be trusted. The JCPOA of 2015 has no future. It is time to declare it dead, invoke the snapback sanctions mechanism, and pivot to a deterrence strategy as the diplomatic track has run aground,” Brodsky said.
Intelligence officials further explained to Fox News, “President Putin, who made a special trip to Iran to pursue weapons deals between the two countries, agreed to approve the request, apparently due to his interest in compensating the Iranians for their assistance.”
The actions to go around America and other Western powers would get rid of the entire reason for the Iran nuclear deal, said intelligence officials, as it would “undermine U.S. interests and would give Russia de facto control over the nuclear agreement in the present and future.”
Following the end of the Cold War, Russian scientists were hired by the Islamic Republic to aid in its nuclear program development, prompting concern for American and Western officials. With the Ukraine war ongoing, Moscow has been more open to providing nuclear material and know-it-all to advance its program to a weapons-grade level.
Last week, reports from media outlets found that the Biden administration was following a softer approach than its Western European allies, who want Iran to be censured at the upcoming IAEA meeting for enriching uranium to nuclear weapon grade.
Following the news that the Islamic Republic has produced weapon-grade nuclear material of 60 percent in the past few years with 84 percent purity, Israeli and American officials have called on the international community to take a tougher approach towards the mullahs and prepare for military measures in the near future.
Related Story: Biden Admin Wants Allies to Keep Quiet as Iran Comes Closer Than Ever to Nuclear Capability
@Michael I’m sorry. 😀
Peloni,
Please stop apologizing for these thugs! The Russians projected power into Syria for two reasons:
1. to protect their warm-water naval facility there, and
2. to prop up their old friend Assad.
That it! There is no altruism here, no complicated thinking. The Russians are hegemonic, imperialist aggressors — and by the way, they have a long track record of working against the interests of Israel. All this comes to focus in Iran, FOR WHOM THEY BUILT A NUCLEAR REACTOR WITH WHICH TO PRODUCE WEAPONS, long ago!
Spare me the rest — about how it’s all MY fault, being the irredeemable white goy that I am.
A couple of things to consider here.
Russia’s initial interest in the Middle East was to help offset many American policies which led to the massive migration waves over the past decade. Consequently, providing Uranium to the Iranians would seem to be a direct conflict with Russian interests in the region.
Beyond this, there is the fact that the only means by which Russia is currently able to trade with Iran using the US controlled monetary system is in the area of the Iranian nuclear program. This was not due to an oversight, as it was specifically considered by the US when they first initiated their overwhelming sanctions against Russia last spring. They finally chose not to provide such a carve out over the summer. Then, very quietly, this past January, just such a carve out from US sanctions against Russia was authorized by Blinken. None of this is by mistake, and none of this is without consequences.
The timing of the US change in policy does suggest some association with the recent formation of a new Israeli Right wing govt. Was this to manipulate Israel into supporting the US policy in Ukraine? Perhaps, but to dispute this notion, remains the fact that the carve out seems to have been among the focal points considered by the US when they first designed their Russian sanctions. Consequently, the implementation of the carve out of sanctions allowing Russia to aid Iran’s nuclear program would seem to have been in the interest of the US all along.
Irrelevant to the reasons behind the US policy change, however, remains the fact that it is not in Russia’s interest to advance Iran’s nuclear program, but it does seem to be in the interest of the US state dept to have Russia do so or that she be influenced to do so as much as possible. And now, two months after the Russia-Iranian nuclear carve out in US sanctions, we have a curious ‘intelligence sources say’ report indicating that Russia is now doing so. Perhaps this report is true, and perhaps it is not. If it actually is accurate, we must recognize the fact that such a coordination between Russia and Iran is being actively facilitated by none other than the US state dept. Indeed, I would suggest that the role of the US to selectively support Russia aid in Iran’s nuclear program is a fact which, irregardless of the validity of this intel report, remains quite alarming and more informative as to the motives and interests of the US in this situation.
Indeed, our great friends in the US are providing our arch enemy the means with which to destroy us, and they are manipulating the Russians to do the same, and we don’t need to rely upon secret sources to believe if this is true.