Ultimatum to Tehran: Nuclear talks cannot go on indefinitely

The Iranian regime and the P5+1 powers — the UK, Russia, China, France, the US, plus Germany — have so far concluded six rounds of nuclear talks with no concrete results. For global peace and security, it is critical that the EU and the Biden administration make it crystal clear to Tehran’s leaders that the discussions cannot go on indefinitely. The regime must be given an ultimatum for rejoining the agreement.

Nuclear talks cannot be left on hold while the Iranian regime continues to violate the ideals of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal. The regime has made major advancements in its nuclear program in the seven months since the Biden administration took office.

It is highly alarming that the Iranian regime appears to be just a few months away from developing a nuclear weapon. As Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told ambassadors from countries on the UN Security Council during a briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Aug. 4: “Iran has violated all of the guidelines set in the JCPOA and is only around 10 weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon. Now is the time for deeds — words are not enough. It is time for diplomatic, economic and even military deeds, otherwise the attacks will continue.”

Furthermore, the Biden administration and the EU must not put all their eggs in one basket (the nuclear deal) and wait for the regime to rejoin the agreement. Tehran can take advantage of the situation and buy further time in its bid to become a nuclear state. Iran first began increasing uranium enrichment to 20 percent in January. On Jan. 9, the Iranian parliament passed a law requiring the government to expel the International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear inspectors. In April, the regime raised its uranium enrichment level to 60 percent, edging closer to weapons-grade levels.

In fact, Iranian leaders have not been shy about making their nuclear program’s advances public. While the former Iranian administration, the Rouhani government, was holding indirect nuclear talks with the Biden administration, Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, boasted: “The young and God-believing Iranian scientists managed to achieve a 60 percent enriched uranium product. I congratulate the brave nation on this success.”

The regime has reached a dangerous stage in its nuclear program and is producing enriched uranium metal. The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, warned: “Today, Iran informed the agency that UO2 (uranium oxide) enriched up to 20 percent U-235 would be shipped to the R&D laboratory at the fuel fabrication plant in Esfahan, where it would be converted to UF4 (uranium tetrafluoride) and then to uranium metal enriched to 20 percent U-235, before using it to manufacture the fuel.”

There are no civilian purposes for producing uranium metal. Interestingly, the UK, France and Germany acknowledged in a joint statement that the Iranian regime “has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon.”

In addition, the nuclear negotiations cannot continue while the Iranian regime disregards and refuses to answer the IAEA’s questions about three undeclared clandestine nuclear sites in Iran. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi recently warned: “The lack of progress in clarifying the agency’s questions concerning the correctness and completeness of Iran’s safeguards declarations seriously affects the ability of the agency to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program. For objectivity’s sake, I should say that the Iranian government has reiterated its will to engage and to cooperate and to provide answers, but they haven’t done that so far. So I hope this may change, but as we speak, we haven’t had any concrete progress.”

The Iranian regime said that it would resume the nuclear talks once Ebrahim Raisi took office. But the Raisi administration has shown no sense of urgency in returning to the discussions. This has led US State Department spokesman Ned Price to urge Tehran “to return to the negotiations soon so that we can seek to conclude our work. Our message to President Raisi is the same as our message to his predecessors: The US will defend and advance our national security interests and those of our partners.”

In order to defend and advance Washington and its allies’ national interests, the US must give the regime an ultimatum for a return to the nuclear deal.

It is inimical to the national interests of the US and its allies to let the nuclear talks go on indefinitely while the Iranian regime advances its nuclear program and gets closer to becoming a nuclear state.