 There exists the dangerous likelihood, if and when Iran's regime has nuclear weapons, that they will fall into the hands of Iran's proxies and militia groups, or that the regime will share its nuclear technology with its proxies and allies, including the Syrian regime and the Taliban in Afghanistan. (Image source: iStock) |
The Biden administration's nuclear negotiations to revive the nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) with Iran's ruling mullahs are going nowhere, all while the administration does not seem to have a Plan B.
The ruling mullahs of Iran defiantly continue to advance their nuclear program. They recently switched off two surveillance cameras that were installed by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and will reportedly remove at least another 25.
According to a report by Iranian state television, the Iranian government deactivated "beyond-safeguards cameras of the measuring Online Enrichment Monitor ... and flowmeter." By turning off the surveillance cameras, the regime is effectively preventing the IAEA from monitoring Iran's nuclear activities, including its centrifuges and uranium enrichment.
Iran's ruling clerics continue to claim that their nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes, not for manufacturing nuclear weapons. If this is so, and if Iran's regime does not have anything to conceal when it comes to its nuclear activities, why is it switching off the IAEA surveillance cameras?
While the Biden administration continues to rely on "negotiations", which they are not even themselves negotiating, Iran has enriched a substantial amount of uranium -- up to 60% purity, a short technical step away from the 90% purity level required to build a nuclear weapon. Even France, Germany and the United Kingdom recently warned that the Iranian government's latest action is "further reducing the time Iran would take to break out towards a first nuclear weapon and it is fueling distrust as to Iran's intentions."
In addition, the Biden administration recently acknowledged that Iran is only weeks away from obtaining nuclear breakout capability. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued the warning last month during a hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Biden administration must know that Russia and China are not going to pressure Iran's ruling mullahs to cooperate with the IAEA or halt their nuclear activities. In addition, Iran's leaders have shown during the last few years, and during previous rounds of negotiations, that they have absolutely no desire to scale back their nuclear advancements.
If the Biden administration allows Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, President Joe Biden and his associates, like Neville Chamberlain's illusory "Peace for our time," will have as their legacy that it was their acts alone that destabilized global security and set the world at risk.
Iran's ruling clerics, among other unacceptable offenses, have frequently threatened to wipe a whole country, Israel, off the map. One of the core pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran since the regime took power in 1979 has been the destruction of the Jewish state. Eliminating Israel was not only one of the main religious prophecies of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, it is also a leading policy of his successor, the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Israel will be erased from the face of the earth.
There also exists the dangerous likelihood, if and when Iran's regime has nuclear weapons, that they will fall into the hands of Iran's proxies and militia groups, or that the regime will share its nuclear technology with its proxies and allies, including the Syrian regime and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Iran's regime has already been setting up weapons factories abroad, and manufacturing advanced ballistic missiles and weapons in foreign countries, such as in Syria. These weapons include precision-guided missiles with advanced technology to strike specific targets.
It is also important to remember that the Iranian regime's core pillar is anchored in prioritizing the pursuit of its revolutionary ideals: exporting its Islamist system of governance to other countries worldwide, a critical mission the mullahs incorporated into their constitution. "The mission of the constitution," the preamble stipulates, "is to create conditions conducive to the development of man in accordance with the noble and universal values of [Shiite] Islam." Iran's constitution goes on to say that it "provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the revolution at home and abroad."
It is therefore imperative that the Biden administration let the ruling mullahs know -- credibly -- that Iran's regime must eliminate the possibility of its having nuclear arms, period. No nuclear deal, no sunset clauses. Sunset clauses merely pave the way for Iran to resume enriching uranium at any level it chooses. The regime's ballistic missile program, which is linked to its nuclear program, must also be eliminated.
The Biden administration needs immediately to carry out its Plan B. It has to be made clear to the Iranian regime that, as part of Plan B, military options against the Iran's nuclear sites are on the table. It must be made unmistakably clear to the Iranian regime that the United States and its allies will not allow the current regime, a state sponsor of terrorism, to arm itself with nuclear weapons and emerge as yet another global nuclear threat.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
Bill Halcott