![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Irannuclear2021.jpg\" "\\"Irannuclear2021\\"")
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The Western signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal recently proposed informal talks among all participants as a starting point for the restoration of both American and Iranian commitments. Iranian regime promptly rejected that proposal in the latest sign of its unwillingness to compromise. This should be recognized as perhaps the clearest sign yet that efforts to achieve such compromise are without value, and that Western powers need to adopt a more assertive approach.<\/p>\n
Britain, France, Germany, and the European Union as a whole have remained obsessively committed to preserving the agreement as written. Although Tehran was never satisfied with any measures that the Europeans took to stand in the way of US sanctions, those measures clearly signaled that the regime would have international support as it tried to wait out the former US administration\u2019s term. More than that, they demonstrated such Western devotion to the JCPOA as to make it possible for Tehran to issue unilateral demands and expect much stronger nations to fulfill them.<\/p>\n
This is exactly what is happening right now, and Iran\u2019s rejection of the proposal for open-ended talks is just the latest example of the regime trying to strong arm Western authorities into disregarding its own escalations. The negotiations would have no doubt focused on the highly reasonable demand that Iran either take the first steps toward restoration of the JCPOA or else work together with the US administration to move in tandem toward that goal.<\/p>\n
This sort of behavior is the very reason why the Iranian regime should never be the beneficiary of an offer of compromise. And that in turn is a reminder of the fundamental weaknesses of the JCPOA. The entire nuclear deal was an exercise in unearned concessions from the Western side, which were sold as compromise but were more akin to capitulation and appeasement of a regime that consistently refused to be upfront about its own intentions.<\/p>\n
The JCPOA all but endorsed Iran\u2019s assertion of its \u201cright\u201d to the enrichment of nuclear material, abandoning the longstanding goal of halting that activity in favor of the much more modest and ultimately ineffectual goal of slowing it down enough to push back Iran\u2019s \u201cbreakout\u201d time for a nuclear weapon. The agreement\u2019s critics rightly portrayed this as giving Iran a clear pathway to nuclear weapons capability<\/a> \u2013 a pathway that consisted of abiding by a small set of restrictions at publicly-disclosed nuclear sites while pushing forward with its advancements in other areas of development, or at locations that had not been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Nuclear Weapons Program — NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
Exposing the mullahs\u2019 nuclear weapons program- An unrelenting untold undertaking by the Resistance#Iran<\/a> #EUTime4FirmIranPolicy<\/a> #JCOPA<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/GbLsbe5YpW<\/a><\/p>\n