Congress can get tough on Iran and still preserve nuclear deal: Former IAEA official
10/24/2017 4:56:02 PM
Nuclear expert Olli Heinonen will tell Congress that the two-year-old deal needs reinforcing
NEW YORK, Middle East Eye, 24 October 2017 - Washington can clamp down harder on Iran’s nuclear program without ditching a 2015 deal brokered by the Obama administration, nuclear expert Olli Heinonen told Middle East Eye ahead of his congressional appearance this week.
On Wednesday, Heinonen, a former deputy chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will advise lawmakers on how to handle Iran after US President Donald Trump’s decision this month to not certify Tehran’s compliance with the nuclear accord.
Instead of trashing the deal, Washington can urge allies and the IAEA to more strictly monitor Iran’s nuclear work, stop it from acquiring missile technology and ensure that enforcement continues once the deal expires, Heinonen will tell lawmakers.
“We have now experience of two years on the implementation of the JCPOA,” Heinonen told MEE on Monday, using the formal name of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “We see its strengths, but also its weaknesses.
“Any arms control, non-proliferation agreement cannot block the routes to nuclear weapons. It can only deter it, and it deters it with early detection. The early detection is only there if you have a robust verification scheme.”
This is lacking, said Heinonen. Washington should work with allies to boost IAEA inspections of Iranian military sites and report more about its military technology, uranium mining and enrichment activities and the development of new centrifuges.
The US should work with allies to stymie Iran’s development of nuclear-capable missiles, by slapping “secondary sanctions” on arms firms that sell such technology to Tehran, and the banks that facilitate transactions, he said.
Further, it should reach “complementary agreements” with allies to maintain a threat of sanctions being reimposed if Iran pursues doomsday weapons once the JCPOA’s provisions lapse, on various dates in the 2020s and 2030s.
“You don’t want to be … in a situation where Iran has developed much more powerful centrifuges, has developed its missiles in such a way that they can reliably carry nuclear weapons and fly far away,” said Heinonen.
“That’s the situation we’re in today with North Korea. So, in my view, it’s time to act.”
The accord restricts Iran’s nuclear activities with a view to keeping Tehran a year’s work away from having enough enriched uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb, should it pull out of the deal and sprint towards making a weapon.
The IAEA is allowed to request access to Iranian facilities, including military ones, if there are new and credible signs of banned nuclear activities there, according to signatories to the deal and officials from the agency.
On Wednesday, Heinonen, a former deputy chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will advise lawmakers on how to handle Iran after US President Donald Trump’s decision this month to not certify Tehran’s compliance with the nuclear accord.
Instead of trashing the deal, Washington can urge allies and the IAEA to more strictly monitor Iran’s nuclear work, stop it from acquiring missile technology and ensure that enforcement continues once the deal expires, Heinonen will tell lawmakers.
“We have now experience of two years on the implementation of the JCPOA,” Heinonen told MEE on Monday, using the formal name of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “We see its strengths, but also its weaknesses.
“Any arms control, non-proliferation agreement cannot block the routes to nuclear weapons. It can only deter it, and it deters it with early detection. The early detection is only there if you have a robust verification scheme.”
This is lacking, said Heinonen. Washington should work with allies to boost IAEA inspections of Iranian military sites and report more about its military technology, uranium mining and enrichment activities and the development of new centrifuges.
The US should work with allies to stymie Iran’s development of nuclear-capable missiles, by slapping “secondary sanctions” on arms firms that sell such technology to Tehran, and the banks that facilitate transactions, he said.
Further, it should reach “complementary agreements” with allies to maintain a threat of sanctions being reimposed if Iran pursues doomsday weapons once the JCPOA’s provisions lapse, on various dates in the 2020s and 2030s.
“You don’t want to be … in a situation where Iran has developed much more powerful centrifuges, has developed its missiles in such a way that they can reliably carry nuclear weapons and fly far away,” said Heinonen.
“That’s the situation we’re in today with North Korea. So, in my view, it’s time to act.”
The accord restricts Iran’s nuclear activities with a view to keeping Tehran a year’s work away from having enough enriched uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb, should it pull out of the deal and sprint towards making a weapon.
The IAEA is allowed to request access to Iranian facilities, including military ones, if there are new and credible signs of banned nuclear activities there, according to signatories to the deal and officials from the agency.
