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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Iran / Iran’s Action On The Nuclear Agreement

Iran’s Action On The Nuclear Agreement

by Cheryl Rofer|  January 5, 20203:46 pm| 41 Comments

This post is in: Iran, Rofer on International Relations, Rofer on Nuclear Issues

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A lot of claims are flying around about Iran’s actions with regard to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Some things are not yet clear. Here’s the official statement and interpretation by Mehr News:

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in the fifth step in reducing its commitments, discards the last key component of its operational limitations in the JCPOA, which is the “limit on the number of centrifuges.”

As such, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program no longer faces any operational restrictions, including enrichment capacity, percentage of enrichment, amount of enriched material, and research and development.

From here on, Iran’s nuclear program will be developed solely based on its technical needs.

Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA will continue as before.

If the sanctions are lifted and Iran benefits from its interests enshrined in the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic is ready to return to its commitments.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) is obliged to take the necessary steps and arrangements in coordination with the President.”

US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and reimposed “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism.

In response to the US unilateral move, as well as the European signatories’ failure to safeguard Iran’s economic interests in the face of US sanctions, Tehran rowed back on its nuclear commitments step-by-step in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, but stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.

As a first step, Iran increased its enriched uranium stockpile to beyond the 300 kilograms set by the JCPOA.

In the second step, Tehran began enriching uranium to purity rates beyond the JCPOA limit of 3.76 percent.

In the third phase, after the Europeans failed to meet a 60-day deadline to meet Iran’s demands and fulfill their commitments under the deal, Iran started up advanced centrifuges to boost the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium and activated 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 centrifuges for research and development purposes.

In November, Iran began injecting gas into centrifuges at the Fordow plant as part of its fourth step away from the JCPOA under the supervision of the IAEA.

Iran will continue to cooperate with IAEA inspections. This is important, because it keep us informed of what is happening in Iran’s nuclear complex. Iran remains within the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which is their commitment not to build nuclear weapons.

Worth requoting from above:

If the sanctions are lifted and Iran benefits from its interests enshrined in the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic is ready to return to its commitments.

This has been Iran’s position all along. They have acted in a measured and predictable way. In fact, they have done less than they might have; a number of experts expected today’s announcement to be that they were enriching uranium up to 20% U-235, which would have been worse than that they are removing limits on numbers of centrifuges.

There are fine points that are still not clear, like what will happen to the Arak reactor and to the international cooperation they have been participating in to convert their nuclear installations to peaceful use.

Here are the initial tweets in a couple of threads from people involved in the negotiations and implementation of the JCPOA. Worth reading in full.

Lots has already been said on the #Iran #JCPOA announcement, but a few thoughts: A thread:

Iran’s announcement today was as predictable as it was not. Lots of us thought Iran would announce a move to enriching at near 20%. It did not do that today. This is good news. 1/x

— Richard Johnson (@johnsonrc01) January 5, 2020

Iran's announced intention to no longer observe any JCPOA restrictions is unfortunate but hardly unexpected in the circumstances. This does mean that the slow-burning nuclear crisis we were going to have at some point this year is probably going to get going now…

— Richard Nephew (@RichardMNephew) January 5, 2020

 

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

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Next Post: Semi-Respite Open Thread: Excellent News, If True »

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    Patricia Kayden

    January 5, 2020 at 3:52 pm

    So when does Trump start rounding up Iranian Americans inside the US and putting them in camps?You know they’ve discussed it.— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 5, 2020

  2. 2.

    Kraux Pas

    January 5, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    Trump was handed a huge step toward advancing global peace on a gold platter and he flung the contents of the platter at the person delivering it and haf the platter itself melted down into a replica of his tiny middle finger.

  3. 3.

    Martin

    January 5, 2020 at 3:54 pm

    If you’re a market trader, you’d be a fucking idiot to not buy a membership to Mar a Lago and be sure to be there when the President is around.

    According to three people who’ve been at the president’s Palm Beach club over the past several days, Trump began telling friends and allies hanging at his perennial vacation getaway that he was working on a “big” response to the Iranian regime that they would be hearing or reading about very “soon.” His comments went beyond the New Year’s Eve tweet he sent out warning of the “big price” Iran would pay for damage to U.S. facilities. Two of these sources tell The Daily Beast that the president specifically mentioned he’d been in close contact with his top national security and military advisers on gaming out options for an aggressive action that could quickly materialize.

  4. 4.

    Kraux Pas

    January 5, 2020 at 3:58 pm

    @Martin: Trump began telling friends and allies hanging at his perennial vacation getaway

    They misspelled daily.

  5. 5.

    Anne Laurie

    January 5, 2020 at 4:18 pm

    @Kraux Pas: Be fair — Trump’s very seldom at Mar-A-Largo between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when the Florida weather is unbearable even to natives.

    That’s why he’s kept his New Jersey resort up to his ‘standards’.

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    January 5, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    My cousin and her husband, who have a Persian last name, will be coming home to the States from Israel in a few days.  I am worried.

  7. 7.

    catclub

    January 5, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: This is of course going along with the ‘Punishment of the innocent ” phase of clusterfucks.

     

    The Iranians most likely to be in the US are those who hated the present

    theocracy.

  8. 8.

    catclub

    January 5, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    also this: but stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.

     

    The other Signatories have not covered themselves in glory finding ways to maintain trade with Iran separate from the international banking systems that are controlled by the dollar.

    ‘feckless’ always springs to my mind.

  9. 9.

    John Revolta

    January 5, 2020 at 4:37 pm

    Question for y’all: was Bibi’s nuclear admission proof that he’s getting senile, or was he just being cute?

  10. 10.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 5, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    @John Revolta: Yes.

  11. 11.

    Constance Reader

    January 5, 2020 at 4:48 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Reports are coming out that 60 Iranian-Americans have been detained by at the border in Blaine, Washington, and that it’s on the orders of Homeland Security.  So in answer to your question…now.

  12. 12.

    Felanius Kootea

    January 5, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    @catclub: Los Angeles has a large number of Persian Jews; my godson’s pediatrician is one. I doubt that 45 realizes that there are non-Muslim Iranians or that as you said, many who fled to the US oppose the mullahs.

  13. 13.

    chris

    January 5, 2020 at 5:01 pm

    @Constance Reader: Canada has a huge Persian population. I don’t know about the west but Toronto has around a hundred thousand, the largest grouping outside Iran.

  14. 14.

    Cheryl Rofer

    January 5, 2020 at 5:03 pm

    @John Revolta: It’s slipped out before.

  15. 15.

    Aleta

    January 5, 2020 at 5:05 pm

    This is also a time when students and profs of Iranian and Iraqui origin are returning to the US  after U winter break.

  16. 16.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 5:09 pm

    “The Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) is assisting more than 60 Iranians and Iranian-Americans of all ages who were detained at length and questioned at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Wash” https://t.co/gJWcoZyUct— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) January 5, 2020

  17. 17.

    gene108

    January 5, 2020 at 5:09 pm

    (SEATTLE, WA, 1/5/20) – The Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) is assisting more than 60 Iranians and Iranian-Americans of all ages who were detained at length and questioned at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Wash.

    Many more were reportedly refused entry to the United States due to a lack of capacity for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to detain them.

    Other Iranian-Americans are about to cross the Peace Arch Border as they return back to their homes in the United States from an Iranian pop concert that was taking place on Saturday in Vancouver, Canada.

    Those detained reported that their passports were confiscated and they were questioned about their political views and allegiances. CBP officials contacted at the Blaine Port of Entry provided no comment or reasons for the detentions.

    https://www.cair.com/breaking_cair_wa_assisting_iranian_americans_detained_u_s_border

    Guess Stephen Miller is a part of the response to de-escalation, with Iran

  18. 18.

    gene108

    January 5, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    (SEATTLE, WA, 1/5/20) – The Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) is assisting more than 60 Iranians and Iranian-Americans of all ages who were detained at length and questioned at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Wash.

    Many more were reportedly refused entry to the United States due to a lack of capacity for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to detain them.

    Other Iranian-Americans are about to cross the Peace Arch Border as they return back to their homes in the United States from an Iranian pop concert that was taking place on Saturday in Vancouver, Canada.

    Those detained reported that their passports were confiscated and they were questioned about their political views and allegiances. CBP officials contacted at the Blaine Port of Entry provided no comment or reasons for the detentions.

    https://www.cair.com/breaking_cair_wa_assisting_iranian_americans_detained_u_s_border

    Guess Stephen Miller is a part of the response to de-escalation, with Iran

  19. 19.

    Mary G

    January 5, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    Good article in the LA Times: Across California, Iranian Americans are shocked, alarmed or relieved at the killing of Qassem Suleimani

    Khanlou said he doubts that the Iranian government will retaliate for the killing, but he can’t help but worry about friends and relatives living in Iran. He hates the idea of more violence afflicting his beloved Tehran, which he fled during the Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s.

    “This country has been good to us,” he said of the U.S. He sighed and looked at the ground. “But where are our roots? Iran, always Iran.”

  20. 20.

    JPL

    January 5, 2020 at 5:14 pm

    @John Revolta: It would be interesting to see what Cheryl thinks, but personally I find it difficult to believe that it was in error.

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    January 5, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    Meanwhile John Bolton is gloating about how Iran’s departure from an agreement we already unilaterally broke is some kind of sign that we never could have trusted them to comply. I hate that guy so much.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    January 5, 2020 at 5:23 pm

    @gene108: Prof at UPenn received the same treatment at JFK.

     

    So if asked how you feel about the assassination,  what’s the proper response.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    January 5, 2020 at 5:31 pm

    @MomSense: This is crazy.  None of this should be happening. Once again, I cannot figure out why were are not all in the streets.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 5:40 pm

    @catclub:

    given the global penetration of the dollar, international trade and finance, the Fed’s willingness to overreach and ignore everybody else’s laws,

    it’s not an easy thing to do.

    You have to create an entire business/financial/trading system from scratch, that replicates an exceeding complex system built bit by bit since 1945, at the same having 0 cross contamination or intersectionality with the current system, and not one penny, one person, one product, one company or even one cargo truck or train can be “shared” between the two systems*,

    and anybody working in the “new” system can ever work in the old system ever again*.

    (* you can count on the Fed going after a railroad company for moving the freight, if that’s all they can get, and you know they will “sanction” anyone they can and never let them drop).

  25. 25.

    zhena gogolia

    January 5, 2020 at 5:45 pm

    Say what you want about Uncle Joe, he’s been pretty on point about all this (not specifically the border issue, but the provocations from Twitler).

  26. 26.

    Baud

    January 5, 2020 at 5:49 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Hey @realDonaldTrump, do you think the American people want another war in the Middle East? Des Moines certainly doesn’t. pic.twitter.com/uFgQuqg1oL
    — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 5, 2020

    The more the walls close in on this guy, the more irrational he becomes. https://t.co/Nba7Color1
    — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 5, 2020

  27. 27.

    Cheryl Rofer

    January 5, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    LOL

    This Media Post will serve as a reminder that war powers reside in the Congress under the United States Constitution. And that you should read the War Powers Act. And that you’re not a dictator. https://t.co/VTroMegWv0

    — House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) January 5, 2020

  28. 28.

    opiejeanne

    January 5, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: They think that’s going to fly? Really?

  29. 29.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 6:07 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    it’s good enough for the MAGAt’s.

  30. 30.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    This capricious musing about undermining the territorial integrity of Iraq is no favor to the Kurds. How long could they reasonably expect the US guarantee a new Kurdish state’s security? Until Trump’s next phone call with Erdogan? https://t.co/QDtHHkF6oj— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 5, 2020

    The MAGAt’s are now musing aloud about “deescalating” by trying to get the Kurds to succeed from Iraq.

  31. 31.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    It will never cease to disgust me that the people who gave us the Iraq War still haven’t suffered any consequences. Of course they’re gonna do it again if they know they get to walk free (with book deals) afterwards.— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) January 5, 2020

    As noted in a previous thread by many commenters, the rot in the US has gone very deep.

  32. 32.

    Bill Arnold

    January 5, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    How is the assassination of Suleimani being justified legally by the DJT adminstration?
    I don’t see the AUMF applying in a literal sense. Pence’s silliness aside.
    The War Powers act doesn’t seem to apply.
    (But I haven’t looked at the history, just am looking at the texts atm.)

  33. 33.

    JPL

    January 5, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    @opiejeanne: Why not?   The republican Senate let’s trump do what ever he wants.

  34. 34.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 6:31 pm

    @Bill Arnold:

    they sent a completely classified pile of BS to Nancy Smash as an “Intelligence Finding”.

    And Legal twitter was all a flutter yesterday trying to find any legal justification for the action,

    as near as I can tell, they found nothing that stands up, but then , these are Lawyers or they play one on Twitter,

    they are not Doltus’s Insane Clown Posse and “free” Lawyers.

    And of course, DisBarr’s DOJ spent Friday in Court arguing that the Courts had no say in a dispute between the Administration and the Congress. That whom ever had the most Cops, Guns and Tanks should win.

  35. 35.

    J R in WV

    January 5, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    @Jay:

    …“deescalating” by trying to get the Kurds to succeed from Iraq.

    Nothing succeeds like success, but neither word means what you’re talking about. The English word you appear to be looking for is secede, or past tense seceded. Better luck next time.

  36. 36.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 7:18 pm

    @J R in WV:

    how are your Pet Nazi’s doing?

  37. 37.

    debbie

    January 5, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    It’s heartwarming to see the number of likes for that post (18,000 as of now). It’s only been about an hour.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 5, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m sure Bolton’s Iran war boner is at full mast – no ED meds needed.  (Not sorry)

  39. 39.

    Jay

    January 5, 2020 at 7:43 pm

    @J R in WV:

    funny, so what happened to that entire class of wanna be Prison Nazi’s who gave the Seig Heil you defended?

    how’s Nancy Smash doing with hanging on to the Articles of Impeachment, which you said was “impossible”.

    LMFA off, yes, just I can be an asshole back atcha any day.

    oh, and BTdubs, I added written comments sometimes before, and sometimes after posting tweets, summing up the tweet, specifically because you said your “security features” don’t let you see the text of the tweet, even when posted.

    That way, you know, you could go to the tweet if interested, rather than waiting until a FP puts them on the front page, a couple hours to days later.

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 5, 2020 at 8:08 pm

    @Jay: Condi, Colin, Rummy, Dick and W should be on the front line.

  41. 41.

    Uncle Omar

    January 5, 2020 at 8:44 pm

    Will someone, Adam?, please tell me when the media is going to stop saying “contractors” or “civilian contractors” as in two “civilian contractors” were killed in the raid in Kenya and start using the proper and accurate term, to wit: “Mercenary.”  Never mind, the gutless media never will.

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