РУССКИЙ
21:37 26.12.2017 •
US president Donald Trump published a new strategy on Iran. There were two major declarations. The first one related to inacceptability for the USA of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA) signed in 2015 on Iranian nuclear program. The second one related to sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that was included in the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.
First of all, we should remember that President Trump did not take the USA out of the JCPOA and did not denounce it. Once again, he simply did not confirm that Iran performed the “nuclear treaty” (which he did before), gave orders to learn if it is possible to amend its terms and conditions, as well as made a declaration that the American party may terminate it at any time. Though in this process he did not give details of the methods, mechanisms, ways and the instruments of this hypothetical denunciation. This is not a simple two party American-Iranian document, this is an international pact, approved and confirmed by the UN Security Council.
As a counterbalance to their boss, a group of National Security advisors to Trump declared that Iran conforms to the conditions agreed. This is a fully substantiated and logical declaration, has the main International watchdog of the IRI nuclear program, IAEA has confirmed 8 times that “Iran is strictly in line with its obligations under the JCPOA”. That is why Trump did not and does not have a formal way to terminate the agreement.
Another issue here is to change the requirements for Iran in this agreement. But this is also less probable because Iran categorically objects to it. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declared that Tehran will never negotiate on the nuclear deal with the world powers already agreed.
In his turn, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed that the terms of conditions of JCPOA cannot be reviewed, and the best way is to follow them.
Russia, China and the European Union also noted that the JCPOA does not need any additions or amendments. Russian Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov gave a smart remark on that: “There is an American proverb that our colleagues open use in such situations, ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it’.”
JCPOA has been working fine for two and a half years. Former Under Secretary of State and chief negotiator from Washington, together with the other G6 intermediaries and Iran Wendy Sherman warned: “The reluctance of the president to accept the truth about the agreement with Iran, that it works and that it is clearly in the US National Security interests, will have serious consequences.”
We will add that not only for the USA, which will face political, image and moral challenges. All the participants of the nuclear talks with IRI (except USA) support JCPOA and speak for keeping it, criticizing Trump's position.
Besides that, the fact that Iran went out from under the sanctions, it also became and interesting Target for the international business. Almost all EU countries, as well as Japan, South Korea, China, Southeast Asia are interested in developing economic relations with Iran and are actively against a new anti-Iranian campaign and new anti-Iranian sanctions.
JCPOA is an important historical document that, probably for the first time since 1945 when the nuclear era started, put the nuclear Ambitions of a particular country under control and made it fit the framework of international laws and IAEA requirements. This is a good example of global diplomacy effectiveness that created a precedent of true trust of other parties in the name of nuclear weapons nonproliferation. JCPOA can become a model for diplomatic settlement of regional and world crises.
It should be noted, that Great Britain, Germany, France underline the aspect of nuclear non-proliferation in this treaty and say that it really meets its target. They spoke in support of JCPOA and called to the USA not to take steps that could undermine it and thus undermine the non-proliferation regime for nuclear weapons.
Mass media say, that London, Paris and Berlin called Washington to think it over. French president Emmanuel macron disclosed his intentions to make a visit to Iran, while German foreign office head Sigmar Gabriel declared that White House policy pushes Europe back from the USA and, moreover, causes it to get closer to China and Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran in early November where he will have talks with the IRI President Hassan Rouhani. Among the problems discussed there will inevitably be the question of is the JCPOA future. Moscow will once again express its support to this International document.
Destruction of JCPOA by the United States will undermine trust to America and, most negative, to all talks on nuclear problems of the “threshold” countries aspiring to get nuclear weapons, first of all, North Korea, and to further lead two nuclear non-proliferation regime falling.
This or that way, this will cause the USA to become an outlaw country that will not have any moral rights to call anyone to negotiations on new nuclear agreements.
Trump must have understood the consequences of his resolution to leave JCPOA and did not declare it irrevocably. In conditions of a very hard internal policy situation in the USA, he shifted the responsibility for it to the Congress. The Congressmen have 60 days to think over and take a bill on sanctions due to the refusal of the IRI President regarding the conditions of the nuclear agreement and another 10 days for the voting process. That means that the fate of JCPOA will be solved December 24th. There are little partyzans of IRI in the USA, but there are many opponents to Trump. Thus, we don't know how the Congress will behave in those December days. This is a hard game, just as in American football.
Another version is that the reason for the the anti Iranian campaign initiation is the fact that President Trump is trying to provoke Iran to unilaterally leave JCPOA. For Trump that would be a perfect variant.
In its turn, Iran is also playing its own game, because there are many opponents to this agreement. Now the country sees a hard game between relatively liberal surrounding of President Rouhani and his political and economic opponents.
One of them is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as well as politicians in the surrounding of Rouhani opponents at the recent election, Ebrahim Raisi and radical clerics. A special attention should be paid to IRGC, that is an organization that has not only military, but also economic power. By the way, in the period of hard sanctions, the structures of IRGC managed to find ways to pass over the limits gaining considerable funds from their activity. It's natural that IRGC was not interested in lifting sanctions.
There is a political game on, and it is very active. Certainly, JCPOA, the IRI nuclear program which is the object of Iranian national pride, is in the center of this fight.
Antique Iranian activity of trump is playing for opponents of Hassan Rouhani who built his presidential career on conclusion of this nuclear agreement and lifting sanctions imposed on Iran. He managed to reach positive economic results, in his new year address to the nation on March this year he said: “The Iranian people, having taken the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions, reached the results we wished, the sanctions chains are broken… The sanctions in the sphere of banking, currency and financial operations, petrol and petrochemistry, insurance and transports – all these “nuclear sanctions” are lifted which created perfect conditions for economic activity of our people.” “I am certain, said president Rouhani, is that our joint effort inside the country and constructive interaction with the world will help our economy to grow and blossom.”
This is so. In 2013 the GDP fell 6% per annum, while in 2016 the Iranian economy grew about 4-6%. The fight on inflation was also successful causing it to fall from the unofficial 40% to around 10%.
JCPOA took Iran from the isolation. In two years Tehran was visited by dozens of state leaders and governments, while the amount of trade and economic delegations can be hardly counted at all. There was information on dozens of transactions for billions of dollars.
This August, when presenting a new cabinet to Majlis, President Rouhani declared that one of the external political priorities of the new government will be keeping the agreement on the nuclear program and its protection from the USA acts. “The most important task of the foreign minister is, first of all, to maintain JCPOA and not too loud USA and our opponents succeed,” Mr. Rouhani said. “Protecting JCPOA means to fight Iranian enemies,” the Iranian President said.
JCPOA destruction or yet even an attempt to do it by the White House will significantly strengthen president Rouhani’s opponents’ position which can eventually lead to serious consequences, up to forceful transition of the executive power from the incumbent president to his opponents. In this scenario, it's possible that Iran will terminate JCPOA and IAEA will be removed from control over the nuclear activity of Iran which will once again make the IRI nuclear program active and reanimate its military component.
Such a scenario will cause a strong reaction of the USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia which is fraught with yet another possible military conflict in the Middle East.
Another danger is Trump's resolution to include IRGC In the list of terrorist organization, putting it in line with Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
This caused immediate Tehran reaction. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran would retaliate very hard without giving any more further detail.
IRGC Chief commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari, in his turn, made a transparent hint that the Corps would include the US Army into the list of terrorist organizations and make it it's target like ISIS all over the world, and first of all in the Middle East, to counteract Trump's allegations in his address. General Jafari persistently recommended USA to leave the Middle East and stay at a distance of at least 2000 km from Iran (the operating range of Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles). There is information that Iranian missiles were retargeted to the objects related to the American Army located in the Middle East.
Thus, the “cold war” between USA and Iran up for almost 40 years is moving step by step into a critical phase thanks to efforts of President Trump’s Administration. Now it is not only Iran and a threat, but there's a risk that it will spread onto the Middle East currently on fire, as well as the non-proliferation regime for nuclear weapons.
First of all, we should remember that President Trump did not take the USA out of the JCPOA and did not denounce it. Once again, he simply did not confirm that Iran performed the “nuclear treaty” (which he did before), gave orders to learn if it is possible to amend its terms and conditions, as well as made a declaration that the American party may terminate it at any time. Though in this process he did not give details of the methods, mechanisms, ways and the instruments of this hypothetical denunciation. This is not a simple two party American-Iranian document, this is an international pact, approved and confirmed by the UN Security Council.
As a counterbalance to their boss, a group of National Security advisors to Trump declared that Iran conforms to the conditions agreed. This is a fully substantiated and logical declaration, has the main International watchdog of the IRI nuclear program, IAEA has confirmed 8 times that “Iran is strictly in line with its obligations under the JCPOA”. That is why Trump did not and does not have a formal way to terminate the agreement.
Another issue here is to change the requirements for Iran in this agreement. But this is also less probable because Iran categorically objects to it. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declared that Tehran will never negotiate on the nuclear deal with the world powers already agreed.
In his turn, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed that the terms of conditions of JCPOA cannot be reviewed, and the best way is to follow them.
Russia, China and the European Union also noted that the JCPOA does not need any additions or amendments. Russian Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov gave a smart remark on that: “There is an American proverb that our colleagues open use in such situations, ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it’.”
JCPOA has been working fine for two and a half years. Former Under Secretary of State and chief negotiator from Washington, together with the other G6 intermediaries and Iran Wendy Sherman warned: “The reluctance of the president to accept the truth about the agreement with Iran, that it works and that it is clearly in the US National Security interests, will have serious consequences.”
We will add that not only for the USA, which will face political, image and moral challenges. All the participants of the nuclear talks with IRI (except USA) support JCPOA and speak for keeping it, criticizing Trump's position.
Besides that, the fact that Iran went out from under the sanctions, it also became and interesting Target for the international business. Almost all EU countries, as well as Japan, South Korea, China, Southeast Asia are interested in developing economic relations with Iran and are actively against a new anti-Iranian campaign and new anti-Iranian sanctions.
JCPOA is an important historical document that, probably for the first time since 1945 when the nuclear era started, put the nuclear Ambitions of a particular country under control and made it fit the framework of international laws and IAEA requirements. This is a good example of global diplomacy effectiveness that created a precedent of true trust of other parties in the name of nuclear weapons nonproliferation. JCPOA can become a model for diplomatic settlement of regional and world crises.
It should be noted, that Great Britain, Germany, France underline the aspect of nuclear non-proliferation in this treaty and say that it really meets its target. They spoke in support of JCPOA and called to the USA not to take steps that could undermine it and thus undermine the non-proliferation regime for nuclear weapons.
Mass media say, that London, Paris and Berlin called Washington to think it over. French president Emmanuel macron disclosed his intentions to make a visit to Iran, while German foreign office head Sigmar Gabriel declared that White House policy pushes Europe back from the USA and, moreover, causes it to get closer to China and Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran in early November where he will have talks with the IRI President Hassan Rouhani. Among the problems discussed there will inevitably be the question of is the JCPOA future. Moscow will once again express its support to this International document.
Destruction of JCPOA by the United States will undermine trust to America and, most negative, to all talks on nuclear problems of the “threshold” countries aspiring to get nuclear weapons, first of all, North Korea, and to further lead two nuclear non-proliferation regime falling.
This or that way, this will cause the USA to become an outlaw country that will not have any moral rights to call anyone to negotiations on new nuclear agreements.
Trump must have understood the consequences of his resolution to leave JCPOA and did not declare it irrevocably. In conditions of a very hard internal policy situation in the USA, he shifted the responsibility for it to the Congress. The Congressmen have 60 days to think over and take a bill on sanctions due to the refusal of the IRI President regarding the conditions of the nuclear agreement and another 10 days for the voting process. That means that the fate of JCPOA will be solved December 24th. There are little partyzans of IRI in the USA, but there are many opponents to Trump. Thus, we don't know how the Congress will behave in those December days. This is a hard game, just as in American football.
Another version is that the reason for the the anti Iranian campaign initiation is the fact that President Trump is trying to provoke Iran to unilaterally leave JCPOA. For Trump that would be a perfect variant.
In its turn, Iran is also playing its own game, because there are many opponents to this agreement. Now the country sees a hard game between relatively liberal surrounding of President Rouhani and his political and economic opponents.
One of them is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as well as politicians in the surrounding of Rouhani opponents at the recent election, Ebrahim Raisi and radical clerics. A special attention should be paid to IRGC, that is an organization that has not only military, but also economic power. By the way, in the period of hard sanctions, the structures of IRGC managed to find ways to pass over the limits gaining considerable funds from their activity. It's natural that IRGC was not interested in lifting sanctions.
There is a political game on, and it is very active. Certainly, JCPOA, the IRI nuclear program which is the object of Iranian national pride, is in the center of this fight.
Antique Iranian activity of trump is playing for opponents of Hassan Rouhani who built his presidential career on conclusion of this nuclear agreement and lifting sanctions imposed on Iran. He managed to reach positive economic results, in his new year address to the nation on March this year he said: “The Iranian people, having taken the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions, reached the results we wished, the sanctions chains are broken… The sanctions in the sphere of banking, currency and financial operations, petrol and petrochemistry, insurance and transports – all these “nuclear sanctions” are lifted which created perfect conditions for economic activity of our people.” “I am certain, said president Rouhani, is that our joint effort inside the country and constructive interaction with the world will help our economy to grow and blossom.”
This is so. In 2013 the GDP fell 6% per annum, while in 2016 the Iranian economy grew about 4-6%. The fight on inflation was also successful causing it to fall from the unofficial 40% to around 10%.
JCPOA took Iran from the isolation. In two years Tehran was visited by dozens of state leaders and governments, while the amount of trade and economic delegations can be hardly counted at all. There was information on dozens of transactions for billions of dollars.
This August, when presenting a new cabinet to Majlis, President Rouhani declared that one of the external political priorities of the new government will be keeping the agreement on the nuclear program and its protection from the USA acts. “The most important task of the foreign minister is, first of all, to maintain JCPOA and not too loud USA and our opponents succeed,” Mr. Rouhani said. “Protecting JCPOA means to fight Iranian enemies,” the Iranian President said.
JCPOA destruction or yet even an attempt to do it by the White House will significantly strengthen president Rouhani’s opponents’ position which can eventually lead to serious consequences, up to forceful transition of the executive power from the incumbent president to his opponents. In this scenario, it's possible that Iran will terminate JCPOA and IAEA will be removed from control over the nuclear activity of Iran which will once again make the IRI nuclear program active and reanimate its military component.
Such a scenario will cause a strong reaction of the USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia which is fraught with yet another possible military conflict in the Middle East.
Another danger is Trump's resolution to include IRGC In the list of terrorist organization, putting it in line with Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
This caused immediate Tehran reaction. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran would retaliate very hard without giving any more further detail.
IRGC Chief commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari, in his turn, made a transparent hint that the Corps would include the US Army into the list of terrorist organizations and make it it's target like ISIS all over the world, and first of all in the Middle East, to counteract Trump's allegations in his address. General Jafari persistently recommended USA to leave the Middle East and stay at a distance of at least 2000 km from Iran (the operating range of Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles). There is information that Iranian missiles were retargeted to the objects related to the American Army located in the Middle East.
Thus, the “cold war” between USA and Iran up for almost 40 years is moving step by step into a critical phase thanks to efforts of President Trump’s Administration. Now it is not only Iran and a threat, but there's a risk that it will spread onto the Middle East currently on fire, as well as the non-proliferation regime for nuclear weapons.
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