The Iranian regime’s foreign ministry spokesperson claimed that Mohamad Javad Zarif in a letter written to Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, requested that he activate the “Nuclear-deal Dispute Mechanism.” (Entekhab, 4 July 2020)

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed by China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Iran in Vienna on 14 July 2015. Under this plan, Iran’s regime agreed to do the following:

• reduce its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium,
• cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%,
• reduce by about 2/3rds the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years.

Before the JCPOA, the Iranian regime tried its best to attain its nuclear ambitions as having the status of a nuclear country. However, these ambitions were shattered by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran).

The rules set under the JCPOA were as follows:

• Uranium-enrichment activities will be restricted to just one facility using 1^st generation centrifuges for 10 years.
• To ensure Iran obeyed the rules, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will have access regularly to all of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
• Iran will only enrich uranium up to 3.67% and also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities in the next 15 years;
• In return for following the rules, Iran will be eligible for relief from the U.S., the European Union, and the United Nations Security Council nuclear inter-connected sanctions.

Before Iran was approved the JCPOA, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was president, the UN Security Council dispensed six successive resolutions against the Iranian regime and put Iran under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. When the JCPOA was signed, the UN Security Council canceled all six previous resolutions.

After the JCPOA had approved the regime, this did not mean it did not want to lose the chance of gaining status as a nuclear power as a substitute it developed its ballistic missile program. Even though there was global concern about this action no one did anything to stop it so the regime has now contaminated the Middle East with the presence of its missiles and drones and its ballistic missiles have become a threat to other countries.

United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA

In 2018, Donald Trump ordered the US withdrawal from the JCPOA and the EU ratified an updated blocking statute on 7^th August 2018 to eradicate US sanctions on countries that traded with Iran. In November 2018 US sanctions were in force once more. It was hoped that Iran would alter its policies, including stopping all ballistic missile development and its support for militant groups in the region.

On 1^st July 2019, Iran revealed a breach of its set limit for its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, which was confirmed by the IAEA. In just five steps, the Iranian regime canceled all its nuclear obligations.

In March 2020, the IAEA Director General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told Iran to provide prompt access to locations which Agency inspectors were not permitted to visit.

On 16^th June, the US secretary Mike Pompeo tweeted: “The @IAEAorg has confirmed Iran is denying access to two of its past nuclear sites. This unprecedented obstruction is deeply concerning and unacceptable. The international community must demand that Iran cooperate immediately and fully with the IAEA.”

The last hope for the Iranian regime

This is the elimination of its arms embargo, which should take place on 18^th October 2020. Iran is signing arm contracts with Russia and China. But the US does not want this to take place. António Guterres confirmed that the missiles sources which hit the Saudi Arabian’s ARAMCO oil facilities came from Iran.

US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said, “The Iranian regime must comply with its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, and Additional Protocol by providing the IAEA with the information and access required under its agreements.” Now that the regime has been nudged into a corner and if they refuse, what will happen is the implementation of the trigger mechanism and the regime will be referred to the Security Council.

The regime has just two choices. One will be to surrender and the second option is to be defiant and go under Section 7 of the UN Charter.

It seems that accepting the 12 conditions that Pompeo released in the first days of his tenure will be the focal point for reaching an agreement between Iran and the United States. The key features of Pompeo’s 12-point submission relate to serious restrictions put on Iran’s missile program, its regional policies, and its nuclear program is fully dismantled.

What is the right approach?

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) stated that:

The attack on a neighboring country’s oil installations was a major step and a new phase in the warmongering aggressions of the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, adding that exerting power and decisiveness is the only language the mullahs understand.

She added that:

Inaction only emboldens this medieval regime, whose primary victims are the Iranian people, emphasizing that the ultimate solution to rid the world of Iran’s ruling religious fascism as the source of all crises in the region is a change of this illegitimate regime by the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement.

Mrs. Rajavi then offered a way out in which the Iranian people and their neighbors are the main beneficiaries. She suggested in her statement:

Previous United Nations Security Council resolutions on the mullahs’ nuclear weapons project and the ban on enrichment must be reinstated.