Iran’s mullahs maneuvering to achieve goals in nuclear file

Noura Bendari

Remarks made by Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, during his visit to Japan on December 21 ranged between escalation and de-escalation.

Rouhani said his country might be obliged to pull out of the nuclear deal with world powers, if the deal stops serving the interests of Iran.

Iran, he said, had honored its obligations to the deal, even after the United States withdrew from it.

He added that Iran would be ready to sit on the negotiating table yet again to reach a deal that serves its interests.

Rouhani said his country would also be ready to negotiate with the United States, even as the supreme leader of the Iranian revolution, Ali Khamenei, said earlier that Iran would not do this.

Threats

This was not the first time Iran threatened to pull out of the nuclear deal.

The Islamic Republic has been trying to show that the sanctions imposed on it by the United States had come short of undermining it.

Nevertheless, it is now threatening to pull out of the deal, especially after the sanctions have had their toll on the Iranian economy.

This urged some European states to warn against the expected Iranian withdrawal from the deal. France, Germany and the UK said earlier that they would immediately return to the sanctions policy if Iran walks out of the deal.

Tension

Ahmed Qebal, an Iranian affairs specialist at think tank, Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, some Iranian officials appear defiant at the time other officials signal their country’s readiness to sit on the negotiating table.

“Iranian decision-makers know what they are doing,” Qebal told The Reference.

He said Iran is aware of European fears from its expected pullout from the nuclear deal.

Qebal added that European states afraid that if it withdraws from the deal, Iran will be uncontrollable.