{"id":234347,"date":"2021-02-02T13:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T18:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=234347"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:16:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:16:31","slug":"excessive-focus-on-nuclear-deal-risks-letting-iran-off-the-hook-for-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/op-ed\/excessive-focus-on-nuclear-deal-risks-letting-iran-off-the-hook-for-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"Excessive Focus on Nuclear Deal Risks Letting Iran off the Hook for Terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"excessive-focus-on-nuclear-deal-risks-letting-iran-off-the-hook-for-terrorism\"<\/p>\n

By Alejo Vidal Quadras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five years after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was implemented and two and a half years after the US pulled out of it, the Iran nuclear deal continues to overshadow a range of issues that are equally important. That single-minded focus has unfortunately led many Western policymakers to advocate for policies that not only give into Iran\u2019s recent ultimatums but also let the theocratic regime off the hook for a variety of other malign activities.<\/p>\n

French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian recently complained<\/a> of the US \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign and implied that the new US administration should pull out of it immediately. \u201cThis has to stop because Iran and \u2013 I say this clearly \u2013 is in the process of acquiring nuclear [weapons] capacity,\u201d he told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper. And while Le Drian is quite correct about the nature of the threat that Iran poses, he is absolutely wrong in suggesting that the appropriate way of addressing that threat is by removing pressure from the Iranian regime and hoping for its reciprocation in the form of renewed compliance with the terms of the JCPOA.<\/p>\n

Ever since the new US administration took office, Tehran has been insisting that it is the responsibility of the United States to suspend all the sanctions that Trump had re-imposed and expanded. The new administration has taken the opposite position \u2013 that the Iranians must first downsize their nuclear stockpiles and scale back their uranium enrichment activities once again, in order to earn good will from the new administration. But Europeans remain unfortunately adversarial to that idea.<\/p>\n

The problem with their stance is twofold. In the first place, it sends Iran the message that its various provocations and looming threats are on the verge of paying off. If the new US administration gives into the pressure and suspends sanctions in one fell swoop, the mullahs will come away from the encounter believing that they won by threatening to move much closer to nuclear weapons<\/a> capability, and it will incentivize them to do the same in the future. But what is even worse is that it will most likely incentivize them to take a similar approach in other areas, and generally to go on believing that violent threats are the most effective means of dealing with the West.<\/p>\n

Perhaps European policymakers are not generally aware of this broader risk, but it is only because their attention has been so narrowly focused on the JCPOA in recent years. That has apparently made it possible for them to overlook the upsurge in other threats emanating from the Iranian regime. But whether intentional or not, by supporting un-earned relief from economic sanctions, those policymakers are essentially offering to reward Iran for all of its recent malign behaviors.<\/p>\n

This would be a troubling position under the best of circumstances, but it is downright shocking in light of the fact that at this very moment, there is an Iranian operative sitting in jail in Belgium awaiting a verdict in the trial stemming from his effort to set off a bomb in the heart of Europe. Prosecutors in the case against Assadollah Assadi<\/a> have made it very clear that the defendant, a high-ranking official at the regime\u2019s embassy in Vienna, was acting under direction from and in the name of leading authorities in the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n

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Iran\u2019s Terrorist-Diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, Led a Large Espionage & Terrorism Network in EU<\/div><\/div>
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