Why the West Should Not Capitulate to Iran’s Nuclear Threats

Just months after the United States withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iranian officials bragged that they could resume (and exceed) the prior nuclear advancements and then proceeded to do just that throughout 2019, with uranium enrichment now up to 63% which has the sole purpose of being used in nuclear weapons.

This is a blatant attempt to blackmail Western signatories into providing sanctions relief, even resorting to threatening that if sanctions aren’t lifted they will continue their nuclear advancements, with Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi shrugging off any responsibility by Iran in February.

For those who were not paying attention to various Tehran’s critics who have warned of the mullahs’ nuclear ambitions for over 20 years, this should be the blaring siren that Iran will always pursue nukes if given the opportunity. The JCPOA gave Iran money to secretly continue their program with the International Atomic Energy Agency not given appropriate access to inspect sites, which allowed Tehran to violate the deal, as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran admitted to last year and European intelligence agencies have confirmed. Yet still, European policymakers defend the deal and try to convince the US to re-join it.

The Iranian Resistance wrote: “What those policymakers must understand is that that status quo includes all of the threats and accounts of deception. By simply returning to the JCPOA as written, its signatories would be signalling to the Iranian regime that it will face no consequences for its prior non-compliance. This, in turn, will give the regime tacit permission to resume the same malign behaviour that seems to be aimed at setting the stage for a nuclear breakout once the agreement expires.”

These policymakers may be sure that they can intervene to stop Tehran’s malign behaviour, but once Iran has access to their frozen assets and foreign markets, they will no doubt be able to slip through the cracks with enrichment, procurement, and development of nuclear weapons.

The Iranian Resistance wrote: “The 2015 agreement was not sufficient to stop Iran from trying to shorten its nuclear breakout period. Today, those same policymakers should be all the more convinced that unless their approach to this issue changes, Iran’s malign efforts will only continue to accelerate.”

The Iranian Resistance, which first revealed the mullahs’ nuclear program in 2002, would seek to ban nuclear weapons in the country.