Iran playing with fire by violating nuclear deal

Islam Mohamed

The nuclear deal between Iran and world powers faces a major crisis, after the US delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency called for holding an emergency meeting to discuss Iran’s infringements of the deal.

The demand of the US delegation came after Iran surpassed the uranium-enrichment limit stipulated in the 2015 deal.

The meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday.

US representative at the agency Jackie Wolcott said Iran had to be brought to account for the violations it had made of the deal.

The agency is responsible for ensuring that Tehran abides by the deal. It is also responsible for saying whether the sanctions should be lifted on Iran or not.

Iran, for its part, had denounced the US demand to debate its nuclear activities.

Iran’s delegation to the agency said in a statement that Washington was the party that had pulled out of the deal.

It added that the US had done everything possible to ensure that the international community would not show commitment to the deal.

It described the US invitation for holding the meeting as a violation of the rule of law the international multiparty system.

Ali Akbar Velayati, who is a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Iran would start the second stand of withdrawal from the deal on Sunday.

He said his country would raise the uranium-enrichment level to 5%. He accused the US of directly violating the deal and the Europeans of indirectly violating it.

“We will reply to their violations,” Velayati said.

He expected his country to keep raising the uranium-enrichment level in the light of its future demands.

Head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in the Iranian parliament, Mojtaba Zonnour, said almost the same thing.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that his country would exceed the uranium-enrichment level of 3.67%, in the light of a 60-day grace period it gave European parties to the deal to help it overcome the effect of the US sanctions on it.

Iranian affairs specialist Osama al-Hatimi expected the International Atomic Energy Agency to issue a resolution against Iran’s violation of the nuclear deal.

“The agency used to praise Iran’s commitment to the deal,” al-Hatimi said. “This used to put Washington on the spot.”

He said the new position of the agency would amount to a diplomatic loss for Iran, which is why Iranian diplomats are expected to intensify their efforts in the coming days to clarify their country’s position.

Al-Hatimi said the US only wants to draw European parties to the deal to its line on Iran.

If European parties to the deal change their mind on Iran, this will give the US more space to pressure Iran, al-Hatimi said.

He said the US considers the possession of nuclear weapons by Iran a red line.

He added that this possession of nuclear weapons would draw a strong line of demarcation between the current US policy on Iran and expectations that Washington would toughen its stance on Tehran.