So Much ForThat Nuclear Deal

 
Iran signals ability to restore nuclear program if needed
The Associated Press, TehranWednesday, 13 July 2016

Iran’s president says the Islamic Republic could restore elements of its nuclear program that were halted under its landmark deal if world powers that backed the agreement don’t live up to their end of the bargain.

President Hassan Rouhani made the remarks televised on state TV on Wednesday, a day ahead of the one-year anniversary of the deal between Tehran and the United States and other world powers.
The agreement called for caps on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Rouhani hailed the nuclear deal as widely beneficial, saying it promotes peace and stability and that violating it “will harm everyone.”

But he also assured Iranians that Iran is “completely ready” and able to restore its nuclear program quickly if other parties violate the deal.

Last Update: Wednesday, 13 July 2016 KSA 22:27 – GMT 19:27

Iran Continues To Seek Nuclear Weapons

German agency accuses Iran of trying to buy nuclear technology after 2015 deal

Guy Chazan in Berlin

Iran has attempted to acquire nuclear technology in Germany even after the atomic accord it reached with western powers in Vienna last July, according to the German domestic intelligence agency.
The annual report of the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) said that illegal Iranian attempts to procure technology “continued on a quantitatively high level by international standards” in Germany in 2015.

“This was particularly the case for merchandise that could be deployed in the field of nuclear technology,” the report said. There was also an increase in Iranian efforts to buy parts for missiles that could be fitted with nuclear warheads, it added.

In last year’s landmark agreement, Iran agreed to roll back its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of western economic sanctions, ending a 12-year stand-off with the west. So far, the signs are that Iran has kept up its side of the bargain, shipping thousands of pounds of enriched uranium — almost all of its stockpile — to Russia and deactivating its heavy water reactor at Arak.
In January, the UN nuclear watchdog certified that Iran had fulfilled its initial commitments under the agreement and some sanctions were lifted as a result — although Tehran has complained that it has not received the economic benefits it was initially promised.

Tehran has always insisted that its nuclear programme was for peaceful civilian means. Iranian officials could not be contacted for comment on Thursday, a public holiday in the Islamic Republic.
The disclosures by the BfV will be welcomed by opponents of the nuclear deal, such as Israel, which says Iran cannot be trusted to give up its ambition of building an atomic bomb.

A more detailed assessment of Iran’s activities in Germany was contained in the annual report of the BfV in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, which was published on Monday.
It said that counter-intelligence agents had recorded 141 attempts to acquire technology for “proliferation” purposes in 2015 — nearly twice as many as in the previous year. Two-thirds of these — or nearly 100 — were traced to Iranian entities.

But the report said Iran’s main focus was to procure parts for its missile programme, rather than for nuclear purposes. German officials have used that detail to stress that Iran is not necessarily in violation of last year’s nuclear accord.

“The agreement with Iran was about nuclear capabilities,” said one. “It has nothing to do with the ballistic missiles that Iran is in possession of.”

There was also an increase in Iranian efforts to buy parts for missiles that could be fitted with nuclear warheads

– Annual report of the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz

Neither report gives a breakdown of how much of the 2015 activity took place before or after the summer deal, but they make clear that some attempts to acquire equipment were made after July.
A UN resolution agreed as part of the July deal called upon Iran not to carry out work on missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons. In March, Iran provoked Israeli protests after its Revolutionary Guard conducted a new round of ballistic missiles tests.

The BfV in North Rhine-Westphalia said Iran often targeted so-called “dual-use” technology that could be used for both civilian and military purposes. It said Iranians, as well as other “proliferation” states such as Pakistan, were acquiring merchandise under the pretext of “deploying it in civilian research, or in the oil, gas and steel industries”, and were often using “forged end-use certificates, or other seemingly official documents”.

The BfV also said that Iranian agents often used front companies in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China to conceal the final destination of the merchandise.

Volker Beck, a German MP from the opposition Green party who is also chairman of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Group, said the BfV reports were disturbing. “If we can ensure that Iran is not trying to obtain nuclear weapons, then last year’s deal with Tehran is a success,” he said. “But if the agreement is not working then that presents a big danger for the security of the region, of Israel, and of Germany.”

Additional reporting by Stefan Wagstyl

Iran Threatens US Again With Nukes (Daniel 8:4)

Iran threatens to restart nuclear program

The Washington Times

Iran upped the ante recently to pressure the Obama administration to release money to the terrorist regime, proving once again Iran believes it has the upper hand against the White House. Its trump card seems to be the threat of restarting its nuclear weapons program if it doesn’t get the financial resources and support for its economy it desires.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chair of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, warned that the Islamic Republic would “resume large-scale uranium enrichment” if leaders feel the international community is not doing enough for Iran under the nuclear deal.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s response to the other side’s non-compliance with the implementation of the nuclear deal will be uranium enrichment,” Mr. Boroujerdi was quoted as saying in Iran’s state-controlled press, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Meanwhile, in addition to other disturbing behavior, senior Iranian leaders have recently restated their desire to destroy the state of Israel, threatening the Jewish State with 100,000 missiles. It seems that Iran will continue to make threats against the Western world and its allies while blackmailing the West for more and more money.
“We do not violate the [nuclear deal], but if the opposite party violates it and tears it apart as the U.S. presidential candidates state and threaten at present, then we will burn it,” Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei was quoted as saying.

Is Iran Cheating On The Nuclear Deal?

Nuclear Experts: IAEA Needs Access to Parchin to Determine if Iran is Following Nuclear Deal
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) discovery of uranium particles at the Parchin military complex in Iran underscores the need to grant the agency full access to monitor the site, nuclear experts warned in a brief published Monday. The Obama administration recently acknowledged that the presence of uranium, reported by the IAEA in December, was a sign that nuclear weapons work took place at Parchin.

The Institute for Science and International Security’s president, David Albright, as well as associates Serena Kelleher-Vergantini and Andrea Stricker, argued (.pdf) that determining whether Iran is engaging in proscribed nuclear activities at Parchin will require giving the IAEA greater to access to the site than Iran has so far allowed. Regarding the uranium, they observed that such a discovery would typically prompt a followup investigation to ascertain the nature of the material and whether it was linked to prohibited activities. However, the IAEA has not reported any plans for such a followup.

The lack of certainty over the nuclear activities that have taken place at Parchin remains “an outstanding verification issue affecting the status of Iran’s compliance with its safeguards obligations,” they added. It may be that the IAEA, which was granted only “walk-through” access to Parchin last year, has not insisted on gaining renewed access to the site so as not “to restart a conflict with Iran over this issue.”

However, the IAEA needs to revisit Parchin not only to establish the origin of the uranium, but more generally to ensure that Iran is not “working on key aspects of a nuclear explosive device,” as per last year’s nuclear deal. Without access to Parchin and other military sites, such assurances will be “unverifiable.”

Albright, Kelleher-Vegantini, and Stricker specifically argued that the IAEA must ascertain the fate of the high-explosive chamber at Parchin, which can be used to test detonators for nuclear devices, and determine whether there are any other such chambers at the military base.

“More generally, verifying these weaponization bans will require much greater access and cooperation than Iran has so far been willing to offer. In future quarterly safeguards reports, the IAEA should fully report on the status of Iran’s compliance with these bans,” they concluded.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told Iranian media that the Obama administration’s confirmation that the uranium found at Parchin was likely tied to Iran’s past nuclear weapons work was being reported out of “distress.”

“These void measures are exploited for political purposes as the so-called possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran’s civil nuclear program was also politically motivated,” he added. He was not reported to have offered any explanation for the traces of uranium found at Parchin.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said last year that Israel had “hard evidence” that Iran had pursued nuclear militarization at Parchin after 2003, when the U.S. estimates that Iran halted its efforts to develop a nuclear bomb. (The IAEA’s December report found that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon until 2009). Iran’s parliament passed a law forbidding international inspectors from visiting military sites last year.

In promoting the nuclear deal, President Barack Obama said it represents the “most comprehensive, intrusive inspection regime ever negotiated to monitor a nuclear program.” Yukiya Amano, director general of the IAEA, said in March that the nuclear deal actually limited what his agency could report on.

Obama: “What Iranian Nuclear Program?”

White House: Uranium Discovered by IAEA Likely Tied to Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program
by TheTower.org Staff | 06.20.16 10:49 am

Obama administration officials concluded that particles of uranium found at Iran’s Parchin military base and revealed in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s final report on the country’s past nuclear activities were likely tied to the regime’s nuclear weapons program, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) Sunday. The admission further underscores concerns that the IAEA’s investigation into Iran’s nuclear activities at Parchin should not have been closed following the report’s publication.

“The man-made uranium found at Parchin, which has only low-levels of fissionable isotopes, can be used as a substitute for weapons-grade materials in developing atomic bombs, according to nuclear experts,” the Journal noted. “It can also be used as component in a neutron initiator, a triggering device for a nuclear weapon.”

“The existence of two particles of uranium there would be consistent with our understanding of the involvement of Parchin in a past weapons program, but by themselves don’t definitively prove anything,” a senior Obama administration official told the paper.

“The assumption in the [U.S.] government is that these were nuclear weapons-related experiments,” explained Robert Einhorn, a former Obama administration nuclear negotiator. “The evidence is, technically, inconclusive. But the administration believes it has other information that confirms there was weapons-related activity there.”

Other explanations for the presence of the uranium — including that one of the inspectors may have inadvertently brought it in or that it came from depleted uranium, which is used in some conventional weapons — were considered “plausible but unlikely.” Iran’s explanation that the uranium was linked to the storage of chemicals used for the development of conventional weapons was not supported by either aerial photography or testing.

Critics of the nuclear deal with Iran have asserted that the uranium found at Parchin showed that the “Obama administration didn’t go far enough in demanding Iran answer all questions concerning its past nuclear work before lifting international sanctions in January,” the Journal wrote. They also questioned whether the IAEA can effectively monitor Iran without fully understanding the country’s past nuclear work.

Independent experts argued when the IAEA report was released last December that the agency should not close its investigation of Iran’s past nuclear work in light of the discovery of uranium particles at Parchin. The report also found that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon until 2009, contradicting U.S. estimates that Iran halted its efforts to develop a nuclear bomb by 2003.

Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director general of the IAEA, wrote shortly after the report was released that the IAEA required more complete information from Iran, or in the future “effective verification [of Iran’s nuclear program] will be compromised.” David Albright, a former weapons inspector and currently president of the Institute for Science and International Security, argued at the time that the presence of the uranium particles meant that “the Parchin file can in no way be considered closed. It should remain open and the IAEA should continue its investigation into the activities that took place at the site. It is time that Iran starts to admit what really happened at Parchin.”

Determining what research Iran carried out at Parchin is complicated by a controversial provision in the nuclear deal that allowed Iran to self-inspect the facility. Iran has also carried out significant construction at the facility, compromising evidence of past work there.

[Photo: Nuclear Threat Initiative / YouTube ]

Obama’s Submission to Iran

Is Obama’s Iran Deal a ‘Dhimmi’ Contract?

BY A.J. CASCHETTA MAY 31, 2016

IRGC Commander Ali Fadavi’s recent threat to “drown American vessels” in the Persian Gulf is only the latest indication that America’s relationship with Iran resembles a dhimma contract more than a traditional foreign policy.

Since the seventh century, anyone defeated by Islamic conquest was given three choices: conversion, death, or a dhimma contract, which Bat Ye’or calls the “treaty of submission for people conquered by jihad.” By accepting the third choice, they became dhimmis: members of a “protected” class whose failure to submit to Allah was replaced by a compulsory submission to Muslims.

Isolated, disarmed, insulted at every turn, and coerced into acknowledging their inferiority with regular self-abasement, dhimmis are expected to show humility and gratitude to their conquerors.
President Obama’s approach to the Muslim world in general has been replete with gratitude, flattery, and apologies – even, and especially, for violence perpetrated by Christians one thousand years ago. Obama refuses to utter the words “Islamist terrorism.” He wildly exaggerates Islam’s role in “saving” Western culture. At the United Nations, Obama demanded that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” He even put one filmmaker in jail for doing so.

Above all, throughout his presidency Obama has reached out to Iran both publicly and via private letters.

Obama’s overtures may not be consciously designed to follow a dhimmi’s accommodation of his master. However, Ali Khamenei certainly treats Obama as if a dhimmi contract is in effect, offering only contempt in return for the president’s obsequious deference.

Khamenei leads cheers of “Death to America”? Obama makes excuses for it.

Obama insists that Iran’s path forward lies at the UN with the P5+1 partners. Khamenei answers:
[T]hose who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are … ignorant.

Within Iran and elsewhere, each Iranian provocation that goes unanswered by Obama reinforces the appearance of his dhimmi status: Obama pays his tribute and endures his proscribed submission with gestures of obeisance.

Under Obama’s administration, Iran has attempted an assassination in Washington, D.C., shipped arms to Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen, and attempted to hack a dam in New York and the electrical grid in California.

Obama’s administration has responded with self-effacing conciliation.

Even video of captured American sailors being humiliated by the IRGC didn’t rouse the president from his supine repose. John Kerry actually thanked “the Iranian authorities for their cooperation.”