Iran sure loves the deal that the administration, the Russians, the Chinese, and our European allies say prevents Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
In order to put pressure on the West to restore the horrible 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Iran wants to stop releasing camera images to the International Atomic Energy Agency.:
Iran’s parliament speaker said Sunday that international inspectors may no longer access surveillance images of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites, escalating tensions amid diplomatic efforts in Vienna to save Tehran’s atomic accord with world powers ...
Under what is called an “Additional Protocol” with Iran, the IAEA “collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said then that it had placed “2,000 tamper-proof seals on nuclear material and equipment.”
Iran really wants sanctions lifted. So Iran is saying it will no longer let the IAEA have images from cameras that Iran was allowed to aim in Iranian nuclear facilities that Iran allows cameras to be placed in?
And is it significant that Iran doesn't use some nuclear material and equipment that is now 6 years old when Iran could use newer and improved material and equipment that the 2015 nuclear deal enables by requiring the West to help Iran with basic nuclear technology?
Huh. It sounds kind of silly to have expected much information from these provisions when you put it that way.
The 2015 nuclear deal was simple and a new one will be just as simple. Iran pretends it doesn't want nuclear weapons. The West pretends to believe Iran.
And I guess based on experience from the original deal, I should add a third point based on a side deal outside of the 2015 nuclear deal. The West pretends that the IAEA is verifying that Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons.
It's almost cute that American diplomats pretend to be taking a hard line on Iran and nukes:
"Iran, I think, knows what it needs to do to come back into compliance on the nuclear side, and what we haven't yet seen is whether Iran is ready and willing to make a decision to do what it has to do. That's the test and we don't yet have an answer," [Secretary of State] Blinken told ABC News' "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" program.
All we're taking a hard line on is insisting that Iran pretend harder to not have nuclear weapons programs.
Have a super sparkly day.
Iran agreed on Monday to preserve surveillance footage from its nuclear sites for another month, extending a temporary arrangement with the United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency that is seen as essential to eventually salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal.
Do we really believe this arrangement is a victory?
