PM: Iran’s enrichment like ‘small steps’ Nazis took before World War II
The European Union strongly urged Iran on Sunday to stop actions that would undermine the 2015 nuclear deal, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu evoked Nazi-era imagery to urge the Europeans to immediately impose snapback sanctions on the Islamic republic.
These comments followed a statement made Sunday by Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, that his country was “fully prepared to enrich uranium at any level and with any amount,” a clear breach of the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He said that technical preparations would be completed “within a few hours and enrichment over 3.67% will begin,” and that
samples taken by the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, will show on Monday that Iran has enriched beyond that level.
At the start of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu called the move a “dangerous step,” likening it to the “small steps” the Nazis took in the 1930s that the world did not respond to, and which only whet their appetite for more.
Netanyahu said that he read an article in The Washington Post explaining that Iran’s decision to go beyond the limit of 3.67% uranium enrichment was “not terrible,” because it is a “small step.” This type of thinking, he declared, is a “mistake.” This enrichment, he said, “is for only one thing – to prepare nuclear weapons.”
World War II began in Europe, he said, “when Nazi Germany took one small step – to enter the Rhineland [in 1936]. A small step. No one said anything and no one did anything. The next step was the Anschluss, the connection with Austria [annexation of Austria in March 1938], and the next step was entering the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia [October 1938]. And the rest is known.”
Iran’s decision is a “very dangerous step,” he said. “I call on my friends, the heads of France, Britain and Germany: You signed this agreement [the JCPOA], and you said that once they take this step, there will be harsh sanctions. That was the decision of the Security Council. Where are you?”
Netanyahu said he was not asking this question in a defiant manner, but rather “with the common knowledge of history, and [a knowledge of] what happens when aggressive totalitarian regimes cross the line, on the way to things that are very dangerous to all of us. Take the actions you promised to take; impose the sanctions.”
For its part, Netanyahu said, Israel is doing what it must, “constantly working against Iranian aggression.” Israel, he said, is not allowing Iran to entrench itself in Syria,” and is acting to “nip this in the bud,” the same thing Israel is now asking Europe to do regarding the Iranian decision to enrich uranium at a higher level.
The EU responded to the Iranian move by saying it was in touch with other parties in the deal, and may set up a joint commission to look into the issue.
“We are extremely concerned at Iran’s announcement that it has started uranium enrichment above the limit of 3.67%,” said spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in a statement. “We strongly urge Iran to stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its commitments ... We are in contact with the other JCPOA participants regarding the next steps under the terms of the JCPOA, including a Joint Commission,” she said.
In a sign of heightening tensions, France, Germany, Britain, and the EU – all parties to the deal – expressed concerns over the step taken by Tehran, its latest effort to force the West to lift sanctions that have ravaged its limping economy.
“We had called upon Iran not to take further measures that undermine the nuclear deal,” Germany’s Foreign Ministry said. “We strongly urge Iran to stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its commitments under the JCPOA, including the production of low enriched uranium beyond the respective JCPOA stockpile limit.”
And the UK’s Foreign Office said in a statement that while the UK “remains fully committed to the deal, Iran must immediately stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its obligations.”
The Iran nuclear deal dispute resolution mechanism will not be triggered for now, said a source at French President Emmanuel Macron’s Elysee office. The French government is giving itself until July 15 to try to get all parties talking again. Macron condemned Iran’s decision as a “violation” of the pact, which the US pulled out of last year.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to Twitter to comment on the matter, saying “Iran’s latest expansion of its nuclear program will lead to further isolation and sanctions. Nations should restore the longstanding standard of no enrichment for Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s regime, armed with nuclear weapons, would pose an even greater danger to the world.”
Iran, meanwhile, did leave some room for negotiations. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Sunday that all measures taken to scale back its commitments to the agreement were “reversible,” if the European signatories of the pact fulfilled their obligations. Under that so-called snapback mechanism in the agreement, if a series of steps designed to resolve differences fails, sanctions in all previous UN resolutions would be re-imposed.
Daniel Byman, senior fellow for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said Iran was engaged in a tricky balancing act. “The step is meant to show domestic audiences that Iran is standing up to US pressure,” he said. “It is also meant to convey a sense of risk to European audiences that Iran may provoke a crisis.”
Under the pact, Iran can enrich uranium to 3.67% fissile material, well below the 20% it was reaching before the deal and the roughly 90% suitable for a nuclear weapon.
Simon Henderson, director of Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he feared that if Iran wanted to raise enrichment, it would have to raise it to 20% for technical reasons.
Inspectors from the IAEA who are in Iran will report back once they have checked that Tehran has enriched uranium to a higher level of purity than that allowed under its nuclear deal, the agency said.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this
report. •