|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/is-the-us-headed-towards-a-bad-deal-with-iran/
Tehran Never Intended to Comply with Meaningful Restrictions to Its Nuclear Aspirations
(JNS) Brig.-Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi and Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser - The 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) has always represented a significant threat to the Jewish state's security. The decision to enter the JCPOA in the first place, not the decision to withdraw from it, put Israeli security at risk. The agreement provided the Iranian regime with a safe path to achieving nuclear-weapons capability, using the cover of international diplomacy. The Iranians breached the spirit and language of the deal by keeping at their disposal the plans and knowhow that they accumulated on the weaponization of nuclear material. By concealing from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) critical information regarding the military dimensions of their program, they effectively breached the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran has also failed to this day to provide a meaningful explanation for the unaccounted-for uranium found by Israeli intelligence in the Turquzabad warehouse and the Abadeh facility. The JCPOA was only to become operative upon the IAEA director's assertion that the potential military dimensions of the program were sufficiently explored with Iran. We know today, based on the archives, that they were not, and therefore the JCPOA was based on an Iranian lie. The consistent and clear violations of the NPT through nuclear enrichment in facilities undisclosed to the international community, and Iran's refusal to allow timely access to international inspectors, verified that Tehran never intended to comply with meaningful restrictions to its nuclear aspirations. The JCPOA in any case has become obsolete once the Iranians mastered the production and use of advanced centrifuges, achieved 60% enrichment, produced uranium metal and more. This knowhow cannot simply be walked back. Brig.-Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi served as Head of the Auditing and Consulting Department of the Israeli Defense Establishment and is a former aide-de-camp to the IDF chief of staff. Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, who headed the Research and Assessment Division of IDF Military Intelligence, is a Senior Project Director at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.