Iran Extorts World Powers In Vienna

(New York, N.Y.) — Iran continued to extort the international community during the nuclear negotiations in Vienna, which just concluded today, with the West claiming Tehran was making unserious demands. While Tehran is insisting on sanctions relief that goes beyond the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed this week that the Islamic Republic has started the process of enriching uranium to 20% purity in advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its Fordow nuclear facility, which is buried inside of a mountain, in further violation of the nuclear deal. This comes after a report that Iran’s regime has taken technical steps to prepare to enrich uranium to 90% purity, which is the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon. The Iranian leadership is engaging in nuclear blackmail and the West should not fall for it.

“The Biden Administration has asserted that the U.S. will not allow Iran to use this round of talks as cover to accelerate its nuclear program. Iran is showing, however, that it needs no pretext to continue on its path to a nuclear weapons capability. It is speeding in that direction today,” said United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace. “The leaders of the international community choose not to see what is plainly evident. The JCPOA—in recognizing Iran’s right to enrich uranium—provided the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism with the option to resort to the nuclear extortion it is carrying out now.” 

“It is distressing and dangerous that Iran continues to be treated as if it were a normal nation-state, given a pass in multilateral bodies, and rewarded for its bad behavior with what is effectively sanctions relief in the form of spotty enforcement. And now in Vienna, Iran is demanding the removal of all sanctions,” said UANI Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. “The U.S. and its allies should walk away from these negotiations, fully enforce existing sanctions, and create a new paradigm for negotiations – one that ends in a comprehensive treaty that permanently and verifiably closes the possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon and stops both its hostage taking and support for terrorism in return for the removal of sanctions.”

UANI has urged the Biden Administration to insist on full inspections and verification in any new deal with Iran, as part of an open letter in January 2021 offering a path forward to address the Iranian threat in a bipartisan manner alongside other members of the P5+1 as well as allies and partners in the Middle East. The letter highlights the unique opportunity the U.S. has to build international support for holding Iran accountable for its malign behavior, and urges President Biden to apply the following additional common-sense standards in his approach to Iran:

• No re-entry into the JCPOA along previous parameters;
• No sanctions relief provided in exchange for mere negotiations;
• Return to the “gold standard” of zero domestic enrichment or reprocessing by non-nuclear states, including Iran;
• Resolution of Possible Military Dimensions (PMD) and undeclared nuclear activity;
• Addressing Iran’s unacceptable non-nuclear behavior as part of any new deal;
• Return to bipartisanship in Iran policy;
• Consultation with U.S. regional allies and partners most threatened by Iran’s malign behavior; and
• Release of all hostages by Iran.

To read UANI’s resource The Iran Nuclear Deal: What's Wrong With It And What Can We Do Now?, please click here.

To read UANI’s An Open Letter To Biden Administration: A Path Forward For the P5+1 And Iran, please click here.