Khamenei Bristles at IAEA Nuke Inspections

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 10, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

              Having final say on all matters of the Iranian State, 75-year-old prostate cancer-stricken billionaire Ayatollah Ali Khamenei bristled at what’s expected to be final details of the Lausanne nuke deal agreed to by 55-year-old U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.  Siging onto the so-called “framework” April 2, 66-year-old Iranian Prime Minster Hassan Rouhani and Zarif promised the West unfettered inspections by the Vienna-based International Atomic Agency, something Khamenei could nix at any time.  While Iran’s all-powerful mullahs want an end to international sanctions, preventing Iran from selling oil on world markets, accepting a rigorous IAEA inspections routine would force Tehran to uphold their end of the disarmament bargain.  Ruling out “extraordinary supervision measures,” Khamenei signaled the Lausanne deal is no sure thing.

             Khamenei insisted that all military sites were off limits to IAEA inspectors, promising to torpedo whatever deal Secretary of State John Kerry forged with the help of Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany, the so-called P5+1.  Khamenei knew when he gave Zarif final say of the April 2 “framework” that the nuke deal involved intrusive IAEA inspections.  Without the inspections, the deal would be worthless, ending sanctions on Khamenei’s unverified promise to curtail uranium enrichment. With Iran developing enrichment sites at multiple locations, some known and others unknown, only unfettered IAEA can enforce any nuke deal.  Last week’s “fact sheet” on the framework, to be completed into a final deal by June 30, gave the IAEA “regular access to all Iran’s nuclear activities,” emphasizing the world “all.”  Khamenei’s hedging on “all” sites presents problems for a final deal.

             Negotiating night-and-day for a deal that worked, Zarif didn’t exclude Iran’s military sites as suggested by Khamenei.  Khaemei, Iran’s richest man, with a net worth estimated between $36 to $96 billion, doesn’t want any outside entity to monitor how he and Iran’s mullah class plunder Iran’s economy.  When the Arab Spring toppled Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak Feb. 11, 2011, it was largely due to his nearly 30-year reign plundering the Egyptian economy.  Worth nearly $60 billion at the time of the revolution, Mubark and dictators like Khamenei have a lot to lose in any verified deal.  All the pious nonsense pales in comparison to the hardcore business arrangement that allow Iran’s mullah class to fleece the Islamic Republic of Iran.  No head-of-state should be allowed to plunder a sovereign nation’s wealth without dire consequences, like what happened to Mubarak in 2011.

             Getting a nuke deal with Iran looks good for the P5+1 but would be utterly worthless without mandatory intrusive inspections.  Khamenei can’t possibly think that the P5+1 would sign onto a deal without verification.  Judging by how the mullahs operate, they don’t want Western inspectors snooping around Iran’s nuclear sites but, more importantly, questioning how the mullahs fleece the Iranian economy for their own gain.  Khamenei knows that the more Iran is subjected to outside inspections, the more it risks exposing how Iran’s mullahs exploit the country’s wealth for its own selfish gains.  Egyptians finally had enough of Mubarak’s piracy in the 2011 Arab Spring.  Iran’s nuke deal could expose for the world—and the Iranian public—one of the great rip-offs of the 20th and 21st centuries.  “It’s extremely difficult for Iran,” said former IAEA inspector David Albright.       

             Albright knows that Iran’s mullah don’t want to submit to unfettered inspections because they think they can pull the wool over the eyes of Western inspectors.  “They don’t want it.  The want to keep smuggling [nuclear materials].  They’re buying a lot of things, and they’re not going to want to stop,” said Albright, not sure whether or not Khamenei would sign onto intrusive IAEA inspections.  Letting in inspectors opens up a can of worms for Iran, giving the world a new set of eyes to expose the inner workings of Iran’s nuclear activities but also the mullah’s way of doing business.  “I believe monitoring and inspections may prove to be the most difficult nut to crack and I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran and the P5+1 [six powers] have some big fights about it,” said an unnamed diplomatic source.  Before the June 30 deadline, there’s a lot details to be worked out.

             Khaemnei’s reluctance to intrusive inspections says more about the way the mullah class has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  Whatever rip-off the mullahs attributed to the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ayatollah Khamenei has far exceeded anything the Shah ever did.  Iran’s nuke deal threatens to expose to the world—and Iranian public—Khamenei and the mullahs’ longstanding plundering of the Iranian economy.  Seeking to ramp up national oil sales, Khamenei sees only dollar signs to the mullah class from any nuke deal.  Holding IAEA inspections as a bargaining chip, Khamenei hopes to finally submit to new IAEA inspections to get the sanctions relief, promising untold billions in new oil sales.  “Iran will have to engage with the IAEA on this in a way it has not, up to this point, been willing to do,” said Jacqueline Shira, a U.N. Security Council nonproliferation expert.

 About The Author

John M. Curtis neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma


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