It’s Time to Respond to Iran’s Bad-Faith Negotiations

The Islamic Republic has flouted its nonproliferation obligations and is moving closer to the nuclear threshold.

By and
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The Biden administration scored a diplomatic victory in June when Washington and its European allies spearheaded the international censure of Iran for failing to cooperate with an investigation into Tehran’s past nuclear activities. That positive momentum was short-lived. Last month, Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), rejected cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), declaring that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran absolves his country of probes into past nuclear work. He said those issues are “closed” and “will not be reopened.” 

Tehran’s response is not surprising after years of non-cooperation with the IAEA inquiry. The clerical regime has drawn out talks aimed at restoring the 2015 deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to approach the threshold of an atomic weapons capability. At a new round of negotiations in Vienna last week, Iran doubled down on its demand that the IAEA close its probe before Tehran agrees to revive the accord. Washington and Europe should not take the bait. They should end the talks and call a special IAEA meeting to give Iran a firm deadline to meet its nonproliferation obligations. If Tehran does not comply, they must snap back the international sanctions against the regime.

As a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is legally required to declare all sites where it makes nuclear material and to cooperate with IAEA inquiries aimed at ensuring the peacefulness of its atomic program. This obligation is entirely separate from commitments made under the JCPOA. Yet the Islamic Republic has failed to answer the IAEA’s questions about the presence of man-made uranium particles the agency found in 2019 and 2020 at three Iranian sites, and has not answered inspectors’ questions about a fourth site. In June, the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors finally passed its first censure of Iran in two years, calling on Tehran to act “without delay” and “resolve all outstanding safeguards issues.”

That was a step forward, but President Joe Biden created most of the roadblocks to holding Iran accountable. Despite the Biden administration’s efforts to blame Iran policy failures on President Trump’s 2018 JCPOA withdrawal, Tehran’s most egregious nuclear advances happened during Biden’s presidency. The president entered office promising to lift Iran sanctions in exchange for a return to the deal. He then gave Tehran breathing room from U.S. sanctions, which ultra-hardliners used to solidify ties to China and Russia and fortify their resistance economy. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Cthocas

    In my estimation, the Iranians will stop at nothing to achieve nuclear weapons. They are a very intelligent, highly educated people, and they understand nuclear deterrence theory. The regime understands that merely possessing a nuclear warhead drastically raises the cost of strikes within their territory and that not possessing one makes them vulnerable to such. The question is not if they will attain nuclear weapons, but when—and how many concessions will they sucker out of Europe and the United States in the process.

    I think if Democrats could be made to understand that Iran is precisely the Handmaiden's Tale-esque nightmare dystopian theocracy they believe moderate conservatives intend when those moderate conservatives speak of limited government and divided powers, then perhaps Democrats would be less willing to offer concession after concession to this murderous spoiler state. I'm not holding my breath, though.

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  2. Mjc1982

    You guys do realize there was an actual deal that the US walked away from. Pretty much everything that has happened since has been a direct result of this move. Why you expect Iran to just all of the sudden play ball when the U.S. acted in bad faith is a mystery.

    Iran is not a partner, and not friend, but they can be dealt with and we actually had a deal until Trump decided we didn't need one. You reap what you sow and we are dealing with it.

    The Dispatch desperately needs to stop outsourcing its Iran articles to this crowd. They are almost uniformly of the same tone and tenor and very rarely examine the nuance and complexity of these issues. Easily the weakest part of the lineup here on the site.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Cthocas

      The Iran deal was basically the West bribing Iran to merely pretend not to develop nuclear weapons while continuing its global terror and criminal activities. It was a farce, and abandoning it was one of the few intelligent moves of the Trump administration.

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        Paul Reichardt

        From the article: “… when Israel stole a tranche of Iran’s nuclear weapons files, proving beyond doubt that Tehran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003”

        Did this alleged bribing scheme by western JCPOA signatories in 2015 involve a time-travel machine?

        Trump’s “if it feels right in the gut just do it and make some s#!t up later to justify it” approach to foreign policy was no different than that in his domestic affairs.

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          Cthocas

          Neither the internal logic of that sentence nor history demonstrate that to mean the Iranians ceased nuclear weapons R&D in 2003.

          And while Trump was an idiot, he (to his regret) surrounded himself with people who occasionally very much understood the stakes.

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            Paul Reichardt

            On what evidence? Your logic seems to hold as an non-falsifiable article-of-faith the existence of Iran’s active nuclear weapons program past-2003 unless all available hard evidence to the contrary 100% rules-out the possibility.

            The fact that both Israeli and US professional intelligence agencies had independently concluded that the Iranian nuclear weapons program functionally stopped in 2003 can be disregarded since JCPOA-opponents just know better. This strikes me as Trumpy election stop-the-steal logic.

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  3. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    I read some of your Foundation for Defense of Democracy articles. I learned you are overwhelmingly WarCons. You pretty much advocate a dangerous and militaristic foreign policy.

    I utterly disagree.

    Your prescription for preventing Iran from making nuclear weapons is weak.

    A. Words is what you propose. Condemnation
    B. You seem to think the US will be able to tell Europe and all other nations to stop doing business with Iran. That's laughable and never will happen. Russia, China, Pakistan, others will always do commerce.

    You're wanting to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons is a reasonable goal. But obtaining that goal is like banning alcohol or unmarried sex. Impossible.

    You are strong on words and complaints, but utterly fail on the mechanics of Complaince.

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