Tehran says there will be no agreement unless the U.S. calls off U.N. monitors searching for illegal uranium enrichment.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Aug. 29.
Give Tehran credit for candor, of a sort. The Biden Administration and European allies are desperate to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran to replace the 2015 Obama-era pact, and the Iranian regime is being honest that it won’t abide by whatever inspections come with that deal.
The latest evidence comes from a rare press conference held Monday by President Ebrahim Raisi. Speaking about the prospects for a new deal and a meeting with President Biden, the Iranian said, “Without settlement of safeguard issues, speaking about an agreement has no meaning.” By “safeguard issues,” he means the International Atomic Energy Agency’s attempts to investigate likely breaches of Iran’s nuclear commitments dating to the early 2000s.
The IAEA is following up on traces of man-made uranium found in 2019 and 2020 at three sites that had not been declared to inspectors, and it has suspended its investigation of a fourth site. Tehran has yet to say what became of the equipment used to refine the uranium, let alone where the uranium itself has gone. This appears to be a violation of Iran’s obligations under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which long predated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Mr. Raisi wants the U.S. and Europe to lean on the IAEA to stop investigating Iran’s violations of a decades-old nuclear treaty in order to entice Tehran to sign a new, and weaker, antinuclear agreement. Oh, and Tehran expects the West to pay for the privilege by lifting economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The danger is that the Iranians know their marks all too well. Talks on a new deal so far have bogged down over which sanctions the West would lift. But the two sides may be nearing an agreement that would ease hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions in return for time-limited nuclear pledges Tehran might not allow anyone to verify. Iran also continues to foment trouble throughout the Middle East and attempt to assassinate former U.S. officials such as John Bolton and Iranian exiles who criticize the regime.
President Biden has a track record of reckless bloody-mindedness (see Afghanistan, withdrawal from) that must give Mr. Raisi and the mullahs hope they can leverage Mr. Biden’s determination to sign a deal.
Maybe you can’t blame a dangerous autocratic regime for trying. But voters—and Congress—can and should blame Mr. Biden if he plays along.
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