Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called America’s assertions about the interim nuclear agreement reached recently in Geneva “nonsense” and said the Islamic Republic’s strategy will collapse the sanctions program.
U.S. officials have called the nuclear agreement a first step in rolling back the Islamic regime’s nuclear program. President Barack Obama praised them as “substantial limitations” on Iran’s nuclear activities — but Zarif said Iran can easily reverse any enrichment limitations.
Zarif, reporting on the Geneva negotiations to the regime’s parliament last Wednesday, alluded to deceiving the Obama administration and the 5+1 world powers, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.
“The Americans talk nonsense [on enforcing limitations on Iran’s nuclear program]… All of these [negotiations] are ultimately for [the representatives] to protect the interests of the country,” he said.
Referring to what Iran claims is its right to enrich uranium, he added, “This right is there, regardless if the West accepts it or not.”
Zarif said there is nothing in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that can affect “the inalienable right of all the parties to the treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. An inalienable right is an inherent and undeniable right that no one can take away… American claims are nonsense.”
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Zarif told parliamentarians that the regime’s goal is to lift U.N. sanctions, which would prevent the U.S. and the European Union from enforcing their own sanctions.
“I promise you, the moment the U.N. Security Council sanctions are lifted, all other U.S. sanctions will be nothing but scrap paper,” he said.
Zarif said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose “Zionist” government wasted billions of dollars to create a false image of Iran that fell apart thanks to the nuclear agreement, is now struggling to dismantle the deal.
The foreign minister said Iran got everything it needed in the Nov. 24 nuclear deal, the West got little and the regime could always go back to 20 percent enrichment within a day, which is well on the way to weapons-grade uranium.
The U.S., E.U. and U.N. will stop their efforts to reduce Iran’s oil exports, meaning the current economic situation won’t get worse, Zarif said, and there won’t be any new sanctions.
“What else did the other side agree on?” Zarif asked. “In my opinion, the other side agreed that we continue enrichment at the 5 percent level… Of course, this is something that we do but they accept the fact for the current situation to continue. The right to research and development [for the nuclear program] is also recognized.
“[The] only [thing we have to do] in Fordow instead of producing 20 percent, will be producing 5 percent uranium — same thing with Natanz — but what we do is we don’t increase [the number of centrifuges],” he said. “The connection between two cascades, which produces 5 percent, and if connected produces 20 percent, will be opened (disconnected). It’s been said that within a maximum of less than one day, [the connection[ can be opened or it can be closed. Americans talk nonsense.”
Iran and the 5+1 world powers reached an interim agreement in Geneva over the regime’s illicit nuclear program. Under the six-month agreement, Iran, in return for billions of dollars in sanctions relief, will keep much of its nuclear infrastructure, is limited to enriching uranium at the 5 percent level for six months, will convert its highly enriched uranium of 20 percent to harmless oxide, and will allow more intrusive inspections of its nuclear plants by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will be limited to only agreed-on facilities. The powers hope to finalize a permanent agreement in the next six months.
As The Daily Caller reported in September, Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic regime’s president, talks in detail in a video about how he deceived the West in his role as the nuclear negotiator back in 2003 while succeeding in halting any U.S. military action under the Bush administration, delaying harsher sanctions while drastically expanding the nuclear program.
Despite over a decade of negotiations and sanctions, the Islamic regime not only has mastered the technology for nuclear fuel cycle, but also currently has over 19,000 centrifuges and over 10 tons of enriched uranium, sufficient for several nuclear bombs, should it decide to enrich further.
Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and author of the award-winning book “A Time to Betray“ (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).