The Jerusalem Post reports the latest in a string of Iranian accusations that the United States isn’t delivering on its end of the nuclear deal, this time emanating from Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, with a slap at the U.N. Secretary-General thrown in for good measure.
Iran’s Press TV quoted Larijani as issuing the warning in light of legislation proposed by US opponents to the Iran nuclear deal to further sanction the Islamic Republic and the UN’s first bi-annual report on the deal’s implementation released earlier this week which suggested that Iran was not following “the spirit of the deal.”
“Majlis (Iranian Parliament), utterly regretting the UN chief’s move, is warning the US administration and its House of Representatives and Senate that injurious measures against the nuclear agreement have reached such a point that there is no way left for Iran but to counteract,” Larijani stated.
Discussing Ban’s report, Larijani said, “On the one hand, the Secretary General says in his report that Iran’s commitment is encouraging, and on the other, he makes no reference to Iran’s concerns and complaints about the non-implementation of all of the P5+1’s obligations.”
The Iranian parliament speaker accused Ban of a one-sided approach, asking, “Had the Secretary General been tasked with producing a report on both side’s fulfillment of their obligations or is he the P5+1’s monitor in this?”
Larijani was also miffed that the Secretary-General hammered Iran for ballistic missile tests, repeating the Iranian line that the nuclear deal only talks about “ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads,” and its missile prohibitions are more like suggestions than rules.
Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, warned on the same day that “we can go to better conditions compared with the past as quickly as possible,” by which he means Iran can swiftly bring its nuclear weapons program back on line, and better than ever, if Tehran sufficiently displeased with the Obama administration’s behavior.
“Of course, this will happen if the other side violates the nuclear deal and this violation will be confirmed by the board which supervises the nuclear deal,” Salehi said, referring to the Iranian board that supervises American compliance.
The Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal calls it a tough week for Obama’s nuclear deal, including the revelation of a secret side deal that will have a new generation of highly efficient uranium centrifuges spinning across Iran in a decade.
“This concession could allow Tehran to enrich at more than twice the rate that it is now doing, even if the total number of operating centrifuges are reduced. This is a major concern because if the enrichment rate doubles, the time Tehran would need to stage a nuclear breakout would be reduced from the 12 months promised by the Obama administration to six months or less, much earlier than the administration had advertised when it was trying to sell the nuclear deal,” the Daily Signal said.
On the bright side, that means if Iran makes good on its threats and walks away from the deal, it will only get A-bombs a few years sooner than Obama was going to permit them anyway.
Unfortunately, Iran still has the whip hand, as Obama will remain nervous about their more-or-less-monthly threats to scuttle his “historic” achievement until he leaves office, or at least until he can get his Democrat successor elected. Pressure from Tehran is unrelenting, but so far there isn’t much sign of pressure heading their way from Washington.