Zarif threatens the world over NPT

Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif threatened the international community, on January 20, saying that if European powers triggered the dispute mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, then Iran would pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

This is a hollow threat, of course, but could still spell real danger for the regime. This type of nuclear blackmail might spur the European countries on to increase sanctions against Iran, which would pressure the Iranian economy and cause further protests.

Former regime diplomat Javid Qurban Oglu wrote on January 21 in the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily that leaving the NPT would essentially mean global isolation and increased sanctions, as Europe was pushed closer to the US view on Iran.

Even the state-run Shahrvand daily, which is close to President Hassan Rouhani’s faction,  wrote:

“The US banking and financial sanctions against us have reached its height. It is possible that following Europe’s triggering of the dispute mechanism and our rejection of the Palermo and CFT bills, the result will be more sanctions. But … in the current situation, domestic factors, rather than sanctions, can have an impact on the rising inflation, and more importantly the rapid increase of liquidity due to the government’s deficit, and the fact that the government’s expenses and spending are not compatible with its earnings.”

In fact, Iran’s “Resistance Economy”, which was meant to withstand Western sanctions is clearly not working. That’s why Iranian MP Shahabaddin Bimeghdar said that the only way to cut the deficit is to increase taxes.

The state-run Iran daily said that the regime needed to comply with the international community, not steer away from them, in order to survive.

While the state-run Jahan-e Sanat wrote:

“We could have had this opportunity to find a way out of our economic problems if our foreign minister had attended the World Economic Forum. We could have had this opportunity to resolve diplomatic problems with Washington and its allies… In fact, our absence in Davos makes the formation of a front, consisted of Arab and hostile countries, against us; as it happened in Munich.”

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote: “As the regime reaches its end, and after receiving irreparable blows such as the Iran protests in November and January and the elimination of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, it is unable to either open up a dialogue with the western governments or to take hostile actions.”