![\"robert-joseph\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/05\/robert-joseph.jpg\" "\\"robert-joseph\\"")
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On Wednesday, Robert Joseph, the former United States Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation participated in the latest in a series of online question-and-answer sessions hosted by the website IranFreedom.org.<\/p>\n
The former Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control & International Security and arms control expert spoke for several minutes about his objections to the emerging nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of nations before spending the remainder of the hour-long webcast responding to questions from international journalists and other interested parties.<\/p>\n
Joseph criticized the Obama administration for violating its assurances that a bad deal would be worse than no deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to get any better than the fact sheet,\u201d Joseph said of any final agreement that may be signed. \u201cIt can only get worse. And it probably will get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout Wednesday\u2019s hour-long discussion, Joseph repeatedly emphasized that his assessment of the ongoing negotiations leads him to the conclusion that there will not be mechanisms in place for effective verification of Iran\u2019s compliance with its obligations under the agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sense is that they will cheat and we won\u2019t detect it,\u201d Joseph declared, adding that the Obama administration\u2019s approach to the nuclear agreement seems to rely upon putting its trust in the Iranian regime to willfully comply. But Joseph insisted that \u201ctrust is not part of the equation,\u201d as he outlined the Iranian regime\u2019s past cheating in the nuclear sphere, as well as its more general untrustworthy regional activities.<\/p>\n
In addition to criticizing the Obama administration for naivety, Joseph implicitly rejected the president\u2019s notion that \u201chardliners\u201d in American political circles are working to undermine any nuclear agreement whatsoever, and even to push for war with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can negotiate an end [to the Iranian nuclear program] \u2013 a real end \u2013 with a good agreement, I think that would be a good thing,\u201d Joseph declared. But his commentary left no doubt that an agreement along the lines currently being negotiated would fall far short of his notion of a \u201cgood agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph noted that if he were in charge of the negotiations he would insist upon no zero enrichment, the complete closure of the Arak site, which could provide Iran with a plutonium pathway to a nuclear weapon, and highly intrusive inspections, including inspections of national security sites.<\/p>\n
Anticipating challenges that such a deal is unrealistic, Joseph pointed to historical examples including President Ronald Reagan\u2019s conflict with the Soviet Union in which he did what many said could not be done by forcing it to remove 100 percent of its intermediate-range missiles from both Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n
According to Joseph, similar triumphs are achievable in the Iran nuclear issue as well, if the West is willing to use both economic sanctions and a credible nuclear threat to compel Iran to soften its intransigent positions. As it stands, Joseph said, the Obama administration\u2019s approach has led Tehran to continually raise its demands, so that the conclusion of the P5+1 deal is no solely dependent on whether Iran can \u201ctake yes for an answer,\u201d at a time when \u201cyes\u201d is the answer to every demand they make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday, Robert Joseph, the former United States Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation participated in the latest in a series of online question-and-answer sessions hosted by the website IranFreedom.org. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":43025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-18288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nuclear","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n