U.S. Caves to Key Iranian Demands as Nuke Deal Comes Together
Limited options for Congress as Obama seeks to bypass lawmakers
BY: Adam Kredo Follow @Kredo0
March 26, 2015 2:00 pm
March 26, 2015 2:00 pm
LAUSSANE,
Switzerland—The Obama administration is giving in to Iranian demands
about the scope of its nuclear program as negotiators work to finalize a
framework agreement in the coming days, according to sources familiar
with the administration’s position in the negotiations.
U.S.
negotiators are said to have given up ground on demands that Iran be
forced to disclose the full range of its nuclear activities at the
outset of a nuclear deal, a concession experts say would gut the
verification the Obama administration has vowed would stand as the crux
of a deal with Iran.
Until
recently, the Obama administration had maintained that it would
guarantee oversight on Tehran’s program well into the future, and that
it would take the necessary steps to ensure that oversight would be
effective. The issue has now emerged as a key sticking point in the
talks.
Concern from sources familiar with U.S. concessions in the talks comes amid reports that
Iran could be permitted to continue running nuclear centrifuges at an
underground site once suspected of housing illicit activities.
This
type of concession would allow Iran to continue work related to its
nuclear weapons program, even under the eye of international inspectors.
If Iran removes inspectors—as it has in the past—it would be left with a
nuclear infrastructure immune from a strike by Western forces.
This
type of concession would allow Iran to continue work related to its
nuclear weapons program, even under the eye of international inspectors.
If Iran removes inspectors—as it has in the past—it would be left with a
nuclear infrastructure immune from a strike by Western forces.
“Once
again, in the face of Iran’s intransigence, the U.S. is leading an
effort to cave even more toward Iran—this time by whitewashing Tehran’s
decades of lying about nuclear weapons work and current lack of
cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy Agency],” said one
Western source briefed on the talks but who was not permitted to speak
on record.
With
the White House pressing to finalize a deal, U.S. diplomats have moved
further away from their demands that Iran be subjected to oversight over
its nuclear infrastructure.
“Instead
of ensuring that Iran answers all the outstanding questions about the
past and current military dimensions of their nuclear work in order to
obtain sanctions relief, the U.S. is now revising down what they need to
do,” said the source. “That is a terrible mistake—if we don’t have a
baseline to judge their past work, we can’t tell if they are cheating in
the future, and if they won’t answer now, before getting rewarded, why
would they come clean in the future?”
The
United States is now willing to let Iran keep many of its most
controversial military sites closed to inspectors until international
sanctions pressure has been lifted, according to sources.
This scenario has been criticized by nuclear experts, including David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security.
Albright
told Congress in November that “a prerequisite for any comprehensive
agreement is for the IAEA to know when Iran sought nuclear weapons, how
far it got, what types it sought to develop, and how and where it did
this work.”
“The
IAEA needs a good baseline of Iran’s military nuclear activities,
including the manufacturing of equipment for the program and any
weaponization related studies, equipment, and locations,” Albright said.
One policy expert familiar with the concessions told the Washington Free Beacon that
it would be difficult for the administration to justify greater
concessions given the centrality of this issue in the broader debate.
“The
Obama administration has gone all-in on the importance of
verification,” said the source, who asked for anonymity because the
administration has been known to retaliate against critics in the policy
community. “But without knowing what the Iranians have it’s impossible
for the IAEA to verify that they’ve given it up.”
A
lesser emphasis is also being placed on Iran coming clean about its
past efforts to build nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic continues to
stall United Nations efforts to determine the extent of its past
weapons work, according to the Wall Street Journal.
By
placing disclosure of Iran’s past military efforts on the back burner,
the administration could harm the ability of outside inspectors to take
full inventory of Iran’s nuclear know-how, according to sources familiar
with the situation.
It also could jeopardize efforts to keep Iran at least one year away from building a bomb, sources said.
On
the diplomatic front, greater concessions are fueling fears among U.S.
allies that Iran will emerge from the negations as a stronger regional
power.
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