On Sunday, The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), reported that Mohammad Eslami became one of the newest members of newly sworn-in President Ebrahim Raisi’s new administration.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization

Having been appointed by Raisi to lead Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, which has been led by Ali Akbar Salehi since 2013.

The AEOI participated in a deception strategy under Salehi’s leadership, allowing the government to progress important areas of its nuclear programme while merely appearing to comply with foreign inspectors on enforced constraints.

 

 

Salehi claimed he had utilised decoy components

Salehi claimed to state media in January 2019 that he had utilised decoy components and doctored images to persuade the International Atomic Energy Organization that Iran had deactivated the core of the Arak heavy water facility in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’s (JCPOA) conditions.

The deception permitted the regime to keep plutonium to nuclear weapons conduit open that was promised to be blocked. Salehi claimed in November of the same year that the more familiar uranium conduit had also been kept more open than the international community thought.

 

 

Won the 2015 negotiation

Western participants in the 2015 negotiations, according to Salehi, “thought they won the negotiation.” “But we had a countermeasure, and while we proceeded with the case, they didn’t achieve what they planned for, and we did not become trapped in the enrichment deadlock.”

Tehran has stated unequivocally that it will not budge from its basic stance, insisting that the US abolish all nuclear restrictions before the government considers reducing its multiple nuclear deal infractions.

 

 

The regime accelerate its nuclear programme

These violations have pushed Iran to higher levels of uranium enrichment than ever before, with part of that enrichment going into uranium metal, a substance that serves no other purpose except to be a vital component in the core of a nuclear weapon.

Iranian officials, including the now-departed President Hassan Rouhani, openly boasted of the regime’s determination and capacity to progress its nuclear programme even further and attain weapons-grade uranium during the quickly stopped negotiations.

 

 

The massacre of 30.000 political prisoners in 1988

This isn’t to say Raisi and Eslami won’t keep up their deception. They’ve both shown their willingness to do so in a variety of settings. Raisi, for example, has made a significant contribution to the regime’s efforts to downplay the massacre of 30.000 political prisoners in 1988, in which he played a key part.

Meanwhile, Eslami’s official lies have proven to be more complex. He presented a thorough cover storey for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ missile strike on a commercial aeroplane in January 2020, while acting as Minister of Roads and Urban Development. Eslami even slammed the “foreign media” for spreading “rumours about a terrorist attack, explosion, or shooting.”

 

 

Nuclear weapons capability

In the near future, Eslami will use his shown rhetorical skills to issue denials and deflections about the AEOI’s conduct. At the same time, any knowledgeable observer can be certain that Eslami will use his chairmanship of the AEOI to push the country aggressively toward a nuclear weapons capability. For as long as the Iranian nuclear programme has existed, he has been doing so.

Eslami’s position as head of the AEOI gives him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to continue these initiatives while working on teams entrusted with directly engaging with Western nations who are still hopelessly committed to the JCPOA. Instead of increasing pressure on the government, western nations should step up their efforts to stop it from developing a nuclear weapon.

 

 

MEK Iran (follow us on Twitter and Facebook)

and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube