Iran Yields To The Wests Demand On Nuclear Issue, by Akbar E Torbat
29
November, 2013
Countercurrents.org
After
investing about forty billion dollars in its nuclear facilities, Iran has
agreed to nearly shutting them down. This has been done quietly since the new
government of President Hassan Rouhani took over in August 2013. Some
opposition groups see Rouhani as the West's stooge who tries to abandon Iran's
nuclear program in exchange for the West's support for the survival of the
clerical regime in Tehran. To downgrade Iran's nuclear activity, Rouhani has
combined the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran with the Power Ministry. The
daily Kayhan reported on November 20, 2013, nearly all the IAEA requests in
Geneva meetings had been already implemented since Rouhani took over and
practically most of Iran's nuclear facilities were almost shutdown.
As
has been reported by the Associated Press, for sometime a series of secret
talks had been going on behind the scenes between the US and Iran in Oman and
elsewhere, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman had played a role as go-between in these
talks. The Deputy Secretary of State, William Burn, and Jake Sullivan, a
foreign policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, had met at least five times
with the Iranian officials. [1] The secret talks paved the way for the
official negotiations to finalize an agreement on the nuclear issue. The
multilateral negotiations took placed in Geneva in three rounds between Iran
and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and
Germany, the so-called P5+1. After completion of the third round in Geneva on
November 23, 2013, a temporary agreement was signed. The official texts of the
agreement and its attachment have not been released. The Fars News Agency posted
a text that was not in consistent with the White House's Fact Sheet released a
few hours later. Here are the key items of the Fact Sheet:
Iran's Concessions
Iran
has agreed to stop enriching uranium beyond 5 percent; a level that would be
sufficient for energy production, and would dismantle links between its
networks of centrifuges. The agreement does not require Iran to stop enriching
uranium, or to dismantle any of its existing centrifuges. However, its
stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent level would be diluted or converted
into oxide so that it could not be readily used for medical purposes and its
stockpile of 3.5% low enriched uranium would not increase. Iran has agreed not
to install any new centrifuges, start up any that are not already operating or
build new enrichment facilities. Also Iran has agreed not to produce fuel for
the heavy water reactor it is building in Arak. Iran has agreed to technically
disable its nuclear activity at least for six month. Furthermore, Iran has
accepted what previously was called Additional Protocol, according to which,
IAEA inspectors can inspect any locations related to the Iranian nuclear
activity at any time they deem necessary.
The
red line for Iran has been to preserve its nuclear capability, but not to
manufacture nuclear weapons. Iran's red lines include not halting uranium
enrichment, not to close the Fordow facilities and the Arak Heavy Water reactor
construction, and not to let the enriched uranium out of Iran. The red line for
the Western powers has been any capacity that can enable Iran to manufacture
nuclear weapons.
Iran Gets “peanuts” In Return
Iran
receives a very small portion of its own money in return for practically
shutting down its nuclear facilities. The United States facilitates about $7
billion in sanctions relief. Iran's frozen foreign exchange assets in foreign
financial institutions is about $100 billion. Iran receives only $4.2 billion
of its oil sales, nearly $15 billion of its revenues during this period will go
into restricted overseas accounts, and $400 million from the restricted Iranian
funds is to be transferred to educational institutions in third countries to
pay for the Iranian students' tuitions. [2] Except for some minor matters, the
sanctions will largely remain intact, and only will not increase. This limited
sanctions relief is done by President Barack Obama's executive order, which
does not require the approval of the Congress. In reality, the sanctions had
already reached to the point of diminishing return and even being negative,
which means they were squeezing the economies of the Western countries more
than Iran.
Because
Iran's right to enrichment was not acknowledged in the agreement, all the
previous sanctions for Iran's enriching uranium, including the UN sanctions
will remain in place. After the agreement was signed, the US Secretary of State
John Kerry and the British Foreign Secretary William Hague both said Iran's
right to enrich uranium was not recognized in the agreement. The United States
has disputed Iran's right to uranium enrichment under the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. Under Article IV of the NPT, each non-nuclear state
has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Since the text of
the Treaty does not explicitly indicate enrichment, it has been disputed in the
negotiations.
Reactions in Iran
On
November 20, three days before the agreement was reached in Geneva, the Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei gave a strong speech in front of his top military
commanders and about 50,000 heads of Basij (volunteer) militia. He lashed out
at the Western imperialists and summarized some historical facts, including
their roles in wars and slave trades, and the US dropping of two atomic bombs
on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Khamenei repeated his previously
stated phrase “heroic softness” to pretend he is not yielding and to save his
face. Khamenei said "We do insist that we will not step back a bit from
our rights". While “I do not intervene in the details of these talks,
there are certain red lines and limits that have to be observed. They [Iran's
nuclear negotiators] are instructed to abide by those limits." Despite the
strong tone of his speech, there was no response from the US officials. That
meant the US officials knew that he was just preparing his military men to
accept the forthcoming agreement he had secretly agreed on.
According
to Kayhan, Mohammad-Hassan Asfari, a member of the Majles National Security and
Foreign Policy committee and some other members of the parliament had met with
the Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at his office. They wanted to send
one person from the parliament to witness the negotiations in Geneva, however
Zarif had said Rouhani did not permit such participation. Zarif had said he
would not give any details of the deal until an agreement was reached.
Some
members of the Iranian parliament (Majles) strongly criticized the signing of
such a shameful agreement. According to Articles 125 and 77 of the Iranian
Constitution, agreements with foreign governments have to be approved by the
Majles to be binding. [3]The clerics have strong influence in the
parliament; about forty of the members are clerics and some of the rest are
either relatives of the clerics or their supporters. Some Majles members have
friendly relations with London. Historically, the British have used their power
of the purse to influence the Iranian parliament. That means despite wide
protests from the opposition groups, the agreement may pass in the parliament.
The
opposition groups were shocked by hearing the news of the agreement, which they
perceived it as an outright yield on behalf of Iran. In Iran, most of the
university students, labor organizations, and the secular groups do not have
positive opinion of the clerics ruling Iran. In the US, the Iranian lobby
organizations cheered signing of the agreement as win-win situation. However
the opposition groups perceive the agreement as betraying the Iranian nation
and think Iran has lost to the Western powers who themselves have the lethal
weapon of the last resort. They compare the agreement to such disgraceful
agreements in Iranian history as the Turkamanchai agreement in 1828 with
Russia, upon which Iran lost its provinces in south Caucasus to Russia and also
the 1919 agreement with Britain, upon which the then Prime Minster Hassan
Vossogh-eldoleh received bribes from Britain to sign what would result in Iran
becoming a British protectorate, but that agreement was eventually annulled by
the Majles.
Will
this agreement be annulled similar to the 1919 agreement? It remains to be seen
what reactions the Iranian people, the military, the Revolutionary Guards, and
the Majles will have regarding this shameful agreement.
Akbar E. Torbat (atorbat@calstatela.edu) teaches economics at
California State University, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. in political
economy from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Notes [1]Secret US-Iran talks set stage for nuke deal, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/2013/11/24/secret-iran-talks-set-stage-for-nuke-deal/FNQofST7QKoLiJsCSmN6xM/story.html
[2] Fact Sheet, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/23/fact-sheet-first-step-understandings-regarding-islamic-republic-iran-s-n ,
November 23, 2013.
[3] “The President or his legal representative has the
authority to sign treaties, protocols, contracts, and agreements concluded by
the Iranian government with other governments, as well as agreements pertaining
to international organizations, after obtaining the approval of the Islamic
Consultative Assembly. http://www.iranonline.com/iran/iran-info/government/constitution-9-1.html
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