Need to Avoid Trap of Extremism on Nuclear Issue

EghtesadOnline: Iranian officials should be vigilant not to fall into the traps set by domestic and foreign extremists in regard to the nuclear issue as it would present the country's "diplomatic" moves as a threat to the world, a senior lawmaker said.

News ID: ۷۴۷۸۸۷

16 July 2019

"Our steps in the second phase were taken after political considerations, but some inside the country and some of our enemies are trying to portray Iran's measures in the second stage as a suicide attack. We have to be careful not to get caught in the trap of extremism," Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh told ISNA in a recent interview.

In early May, Tehran announced a decision to reduce compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement in response to the US exit last year, saying that it will no longer respect the limits set on the size of its stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water.

In addition, it warned that it would start enriching uranium at higher levels unless the European signatories do their share of saving the agreement by protecting the Iranian economy from renewed US sanctions within 60 days, according to Financial Tribune.

Iran entered the "second phase" in scaling back its commitments on July 7 and began enriching uranium beyond a 3.67% purity limit set by its deal with major powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

***False Information

Falahatpisheh, a member of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said some groups inside the country and abroad started spreading the false information that Iran plans to start enriching to 20% in the second stage ahead of the official announcement.

Before the deal was sealed, Iran produced 20% enriched uranium needed to fuel its Tehran reactor and the level of enrichment for its southern Bushehr nuclear power plant was 5%.

However, Iranian officials have said enriching uranium for use in fuelling the Tehran reactor is not currently on the agenda.

"Iran does not want to present itself as a threat and is only using the mechanisms stipulated in the JCPOA," the lawmaker said, adding that all recent measures are "reversible" if the country's demands are met by the remaining parties.

Under a dispute process, Iran can argue the US pullout and sanctions campaign constitute "significant non-performance" and "treat the unresolved issue as grounds to cease performing its commitments".

"Technical experts are better analyzing Iran's moves. They rightly say that Iran has not taken any measure in violation of diplomatic principles from the technical point of view and has only announced that it could obtain nuclear fuel in different ways without posing a threat to the world," Falahatpisheh explained.

He said some domestic and foreign groups are seeking to draw an analogy between Iran's case and those of Iraq and Libya in the past, which led to them being placed under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter that authorizes UN-mandated external action against a country.

However, Iran's nuclear activities are "transparent" and its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful and does not have any military dimension, he added.