WANA (May 21) – The experience of four rounds of indirect negotiations with the United States over the past few months shows that the Americans are not genuinely seeking a real agreement with Iran for several main reasons, and the real U.S. goal in Iran talks is different.

 

First: The issue is not the atomic bomb; Iran must not have a nuclear industry

From the beginning of his time in power until today, Trump has consistently repeated one statement about Iran: “Our only demand is that Iran must not have a nuclear bomb.” However, this claim does not align well with what is actually happening in the negotiations.

 

The issue is that no American expert—whether inside the U.S. or at the international level—believes that it is possible to produce an atomic bomb with low-level uranium enrichment. Building a nuclear bomb requires enrichment levels above 90%.

 

Iran’s history of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the years also exists. Iran has accepted the most rigorous inspection protocols and is even willing to further expand its cooperation.

 

During the time of the JCPOA, Iran went beyond even the Additional Protocol, and the IAEA’s inspections were very extensive. Therefore, if Iran were to engage in high-level enrichment, the other side would quickly become aware of it.

 

But now the issue for the Americans is not the level of enrichment; they say Iran has no right to enrich uranium even by one percent.

 

An Iranian University Master, Foad Izadi says: “When it is said that Iran should not have any enrichment at all—while enrichment below 20% has nothing to do with making an atomic bomb—this shows that the matter goes beyond the claim of preventing nuclear weapon production, and that the U.S. is pursuing another goal which it does not explicitly state.”

 

Second: Ambiguity in the removal of sanctions

As mentioned, the other side insists on dismantling Iran’s nuclear industry. But this is not the only issue for the Americans. What do they intend to give Iran in return for dismantling its nuclear industry?

 

Iran seeks an end to U.S. sanctions against the country, and naturally, any restrictions Iran accepts in the nuclear field must be meaningfully reciprocated in the area of sanctions. However, the recent indirect negotiations suggest that the Americans do not even want to give a clear promise to resolve the sanctions issue.

 

Of course, this ambiguity in American behavior has an important reason. Foad Izadi sees the main issue behind the ambiguity surrounding the sanctions as stemming from the limited authority of the U.S. executive branch.

 

He believes: “Sanctions are generally not under the authority of the U.S. executive branch for it to speak transparently or act directly on the matter; sanctions mostly belong to Congress. If a sanction is to be suspended, it requires two types of authorization: either a clause originally included in the sanctions law itself or a separate authorization issued by Congress. Many of the sanctions laws did not include such provisions from the beginning, and even those that did have had these clauses removed over the past decade.”

 

On the other hand, the current atmosphere in the U.S. Congress is intensely anti-Iranian. The representatives are not only unwilling to reduce or suspend sanctions, but are actively pursuing increased pressure.

 

In this context, the recent letter from 52 Republican senators to Trump further clarifies the issue. The letter explicitly stated that Iran should not only be barred from uranium enrichment, but must also completely dismantle its nuclear program. This stance was echoed in the House of Representatives, where the majority of Republicans supported it.