The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to close the file on Iran’s past nuclear work when it meets Tuesday, clearing the way for Tehran to get relief from international sanctions that have crippled its economy and isolated it from the global financial system.
The Obama administration sees that step as a key milestone in the implementation of its signature foreign policy achievement: a deal to lift the sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program that will last at least 10 years. But critics of the deal see it as one last chance to stop what they see as a multibillion-dollar giveaway to a theocratic state that continues to support terrorism and defy U.N. resolutions, most recently ones barring it from developing advanced, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.
“Just this week, we learned Iran carried out another test on a ballistic missile — the delivery vehicle for a nuclear warhead — in violation of at least two U.N. resolutions,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said Thursday. “Rushing to close this investigation into Iran’s past work, with a resolution that Congress and the American people have not seen, will demonstrate to Iran that there are no consequences for its continued obstruction and aggression.”
Tehran expects that the board’s acceptance of a Dec. 2 IAEA report will close the file on the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program, even though the report said Iran had experimented with trying to build a nuclear weapon through 2009, later than had been previously thought, and was not as conclusive as many, including U.S. lawmakers, had demanded.
“The issue of Iran’s nuclear dossier and [possible military dimensions] has concluded,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declared Wednesday at a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying concerns about Tehran’s past nuclear work were “history.”
His deputy, Abbas Araqchi, told reporters on the same day that a draft resolution submitted by the six world powers that had concluded the nuclear deal with Iran would close the case.
Administration officials have said they are satisfied with the IAEA’s report and are prepared to move forward with implementing the deal. But Iran’s ruling theocracy can’t be trusted to honor its pledges under the nuclear deal, and is likely to walk away after accepting billions of dollars in sanctions relief once the agreement is implemented, said veteran Iranian newspaper editor and columnist Amir Taheri.
“It’s the biggest diplomatic scam that I know, in recent times at least,” Taheri told a small group of reporters on Thursday. “Iran is not going to change anything.”
And lawmakers want to call a halt to sanctions relief until they can be sure that won’t happen.
In a letter Thursday to Ambassador Henry Ensher, who represents the United States on the IAEA’s board, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., urged him to vote against accepting the report.
“Allowing sanctions relief to proceed at this point would be a grave and historic error,” Pompeo wrote.
Other lawmakers have seized on the reported Nov. 21 test of a new, medium-range ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead. If confirmed, it would be the second such test since the nuclear agreement was concluded July 14. The agreement bars Iran from such testing for eight years, and it’s also prohibited by U.N. resolutions, but Tehran rejects those limits.
The Obama administration took no action after Iranian officials announced on Oct. 10 a previous test of a missile with a range sufficient to reach Israel, and a maneuverable warhead that could defeat anti-missile defenses. That angered Republicans and some Democrats, who cite that as one of many reasons sanctions against Iran should not be lifted as the deal requires.
The State Department announced Friday that Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance Frank Rose would travel to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait to discuss missile defense cooperation, but lawmakers want more.
“It’s time for the administration to respond to Iranian belligerence. Inaction is no longer an option,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said.
In a Tuesday letter to Obama, Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Mark Kirk of Illinois repeated their demand for the administration to advise them on a plan to confront Iran’s ballistic-missile testing.
“While your administration has attempted to treat Iran’s ballistic missile program as separate from Iran’s nuclear program, this approach does not withstand scrutiny,” the senators wrote.
