Mohammad Amjad Hossain :
This is the latest development by President Donald Trump of the United States of America to withdraw from another international deal on 8 May which was signed on 14 July of 2015 followed by unanimous endorsement by Security Council of the United Nations on 20 July. Nuclear deal was signed by five permanent members of the security council plus Germany with Islamic Republic of Iran. There appear to be split between United States and its three most powerful allies in Europe: France, United Kingdom and Germany as all these countries are not following footprint of the United States. In joint statement leaders of these three countries expressing “regret and concern by saying” they want to sustain the Iran agreement ” while Chief diplomat of European Union Federica Mogherini on 8 May in Brussel declared” EU is determined to preserve the Iranian nuclear deal despite the withdrawal by US” and appealed to Iranian people and its leaders to stick with the accord. As of now both China and Russia, two other veto power of the security council, declared to remain with international agreement, but Russian federation in fact has spoken danger looming at large with future nuclear talks with North Korea. This is what immediate past President Barack Obama has written, who is on record by saying” at a time when we are all rooting diplomacy with North Korea to succeed, waking away from JCPOA risks losing a deal that accomplishes—with Iran— the very outcome that we are pursuing with the North Korean.” President Donald Trump is expected to meet North Korean leader on 12 June in Singapore to have summit on denuclearization of Korean peninsula. Possibly the decision of withdrawal from international agreement of nuclear deal with Iran has further been influenced by a drama enacted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 30 April of this year displaying Iranian stolen documents detailing past nuclear weapons development programmes and showing what he said was a failure by Iran to declare those activities. On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister praised US President on 9 May for pulling out of nuclear deal with Iran. Israeli footprint is followed by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain for praising President Trump for pulling out of deal with Iran. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been assigned to monitor Iran compliance, however, is reported to have said” it had no credible indication of achieving explosive nuclear weapons”.Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would bypass Washington and negotiate with other signatories of the deal calling the US move unacceptable.
It may be recalled that five permanent members of the security council plus Germany reached an agreement with Islamic Republic of Iran on 14 July of 2015 which UN security council unanimously endorsed on 20 July establishing monitoring system for Iran’s nuclear programme termed Joint comprehensive plan of action(JCPOA). There’s, however, loophole on the side of the United States because President Obama could not succeed to obtain congressional approval to the nuclear deal with Iran although it is not a treaty with Iran as such. However, it took twelve years to reach such an agreement with Iran.JOPOA is a model for inspections and verification regime conducted by intelligence communities plus International Atomic Energy Agency. By now Iran is reportedly destroyed the core of a reactor that could have produced weapons grade plutonium while she removed two-thirds of its centrifuges and placed at the command of international monitoring system, apart from destroyed 97 percent of its enriched uranium.
Newly appointed US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has further complicated issue with Iran by saying German companies in Iran should wind down operation immediately which widely perceived as a threat. Business associates and leading European politicians lashed out at him on his first day assignment in Germany. This threat in fact is coincided by President Trump’s threat to re- impose sanctions against Iran.
The basic concept of the nuclear deal with Iran is based on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of the United Nations which came into effect from March 05 of 1970.The critics in the United States and Israel should understand basic concept of NPT. Israel has no right to criticize the deal in the first place because it did not accede to the NPT although it has acquired weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear bombs. Iran is the country that has gone beyond its obligation to impress others about its peaceful intentions which is reflected in its signing of an additional protocol to its safeguard agreement. Israeli Prime Minister describes Iran as a terrorist state but Israel being so-called democratic country is, time and again, established itself terrorist country under Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu, who terrorized Palestinians and inhabitant in Gaza strip in particular. I quote from Avi shlaim ,who was a Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and author of The Iron wall: Israel and the Arab World:” the biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But Israel’s insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye for an eyelash”. (published in the Journal of 11 January of 2009)
It seems President Donald Trump is now trapped in the conspiracy hatched out between Israeli and Saudi Arabia led Gulf Cooperation council against Islamic Republic of Iran. Flaring up missiles from both Israel and Iran from Syrian soil immediately after withdrawal of nuclear deal with Iran by the United States has caused increase tension in the Middle East. According to Dr.Trita Parse, who is current President of National Iranian America council, Trump has eliminated all diplomatic options and he clearly does not have any political will to pursue diplomacy. Meanwhile, Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that” Israel and Iran’s tit for tat strikes in Syria could quickly boil over to a regional conflagration.” It is likely another war is inevitable in the Middle East if both parties do not exercise restraint.
(Mohammad Amjad Hossain, retired diplomat from Bangladesh, who writes from Virginia, USA)
