Tuesday, November 25th 2014

Negotiations with Iran failed

STOP THE BOMB calls for new sanctions

Last night the deadline for an agreement between Iran and the P5+1 in the nuclear negotiations in Vienna passed without results.

The nuclear negotiations began in 2003 and originally had the goal of dissuading Iran from the military dimension of its nuclear program. This goal has been deemed to be unrealistic in November 2013. Since the Geneva Interim deal negotiations have only aimed at extending the "breakout" time Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, should it decide to do so.

STOP THE BOMB Europe spokesperson Michael Spaney comments: "The strategy to reach a comprehensive deal with Iran has failed. Concessions and the gain of time have made the Iranian regime a nuclear threshold power. Western states must now take appropriate action: Only sanctions after 2012 brought the Iranian regime to the negotiating table. We need new economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Islamic Republic in order to avert the danger of a nuclear bomb in the hands of a regime that denies the Holocaust."

In November 2013, the P5+1 powers made substantial concessions to reach a negotiated deal. 4.2 billion USD have since been released from frozen assets. Sanctions in the petrochemical, automotive and precious metals sectors have been scaled back.

Spaney states: "The fatal mistake is not to judge the Iranian regime for what it does, but for what the powers would have liked it to do. Since Rohani’s inauguration there is no sign of a more moderate policy, on the contrary: The number of executions has increased dramatically. On November 9th, supreme leader Khamenei has published another plan to destroy Israel. Iranian media openly praise missile shipments to Hamas and Hezbollah. The regime has intensified its intervention in Syria, and its allies marched into the capital of Yemen."

STOP THE BOMB founding member Fathiyeh Naghibzadeh analyses the regional consequences: "The appeasement towards the arsonists in Tehran has strengthened the hardliners and caused a terrible inferno in Syria and Iraq. The Iranian and Syrian opposition, moderate Muslims, the minorities in the region and Israel are the main victims of this policy. The West must decide where it stands: on the side of the Iranian Islamists and their allies, or on the side of democratic and moderate forces in the Middle East. Taking both sides is impossible."