by Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
Iran’s ruling clerics frequently complain, without evidence that the US is not complying with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal reached in 2015 between Tehran and six world powers. Since Iran continues to receive significant sanctions relief under the agreement, and is also conducting an increasing amount of business with the West, what exactly are they complaining about, and why?
The accusations that the US is not complying with the deal are part of a strategy that Tehran has employed since the agreement was signed, and which has three major objectives. The first is to coerce the agreement’s other signatories, by threats and tough language, into continuing sanctions relief. The second is to divert attention from Tehran’s own non-compliance with the nuclear agreement. The third is to project a strength that does not exist by bolstering the pretense that Tehran is not desperate for the nuclear agreement to remain in place.
The reality is that Iran needs the nuclear agreement more than the West does. Tehran is hemorrhaging billions of dollars on Bashar Assad in Syria and its Shiite militia proxies there and elsewhere in the region. The continuation of sanctions relief under the nuclear agreement is critical to Tehran.
The US has not violated the nuclear agreement, as Iranian leaders claim. Washington’s unilateral sanctions are a response to Tehran’s ballistic missile program. Since the nuclear agreement was signed, Tehran has fired at least 10 ballistic missiles, some of them into Syria, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. US sanctions also targeted the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the main player in Iran’s ballistic missile activities and the backbone of its support for terrorist groups in the region. These sanctions have nothing to do with the nuclear agreement, which was signed by several participants, not just Washington and Tehran, and addressed only Tehran’s nuclear program.
The reality is that Iran needs the nuclear agreement more than the West does. Tehran is hemorrhaging billions of dollars on Bashar Assad in Syria and its Shiite militia proxies there and elsewhere in the region. The continuation of sanctions relief under the nuclear agreement is critical to Tehran.
The US has not violated the nuclear agreement, as Iranian leaders claim. Washington’s unilateral sanctions are a response to Tehran’s ballistic missile program. Since the nuclear agreement was signed, Tehran has fired at least 10 ballistic missiles, some of them into Syria, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. US sanctions also targeted the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the main player in Iran’s ballistic missile activities and the backbone of its support for terrorist groups in the region. These sanctions have nothing to do with the nuclear agreement, which was signed by several participants, not just Washington and Tehran, and addressed only Tehran’s nuclear program.
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