Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi
The Tower: Iranian Official Says IAEA Chief “Would Have Been Harmed” Had He Disclosed Side Agreements
Iranian officials warned Yukiya Amano, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that he would lose their trust in the event that he discloses the content of the Tehran regimes’ secret agreements with the international nuclear watchdog, according to a report Monday in Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said that if Amano had disclosed the terms of the agreements, “he himself would have been harmed.” Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, added that the agency had secret agreements with all member states that it was obliged to protect. “The discussions revealed that the secret texts between Iran and the Agency have not even been provided to the US administration,” Najafi said. “For the very same reason, they cannot be presented to the Senate members either.”
Update #1: Iran threatened ‘harm’ to top nuke inspector to prevent disclosure of secret deal -- FOX News/Washington Free Beacon
Update #2: Iran admits it threatened to harm top UN official if he leaks secret nuke side deals -- CT
WNU Editor: The Iranian report that boasted of this "threat" is here .... Spokesman: Grave Consequences Discouraged Amano from Revealing Iran's Secrets to US Senate (Fars News Agency).
1 comment:
Herein lies the problem with any kind of a "deal" with countries like Russia and Iran. Individuals who don't cooperate with them face extreme risks of harm physical or otherwise and partly because of this there exists no real mechanism to ensure they abide by the terms of any "deal" they make.
In any event, on one side of this deal we had Iran, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. On the other side, there is the United States. Russia and China are out and enemies of the United States. The UK, France, and Germany as part of the EU view the US as a strategic competitor that they would like to see harmed. As such, they are going to side with Iran. Essentially this was almost like a gang rape against America. While this would have been a VERY difficult situation for any American leader, the situation is amplified by the fact that President Obama and the US team did not even seem much interested in representing America's just interests here.
At a minimum, I might have insisted throughout that other parties other than Iran's allies be allowed at the negotiating table. While its unlikely the other parties would have allowed this so perhaps this is why it was never pursued. Nevertheless for the sake of dignity I would have insisted on this had I been leading America's negotiating team. Furthermore the discovery of side deals that Congress is not made aware of would render the deal null and void.
On the one hand, I'm not sure how this deal can be enforced. America was essentially forced into this at the diplomatic equivalent of gunpoint. When one is robbed, one can generally expect to recover that which they gave up. Furthermore a future Administration and Congress cannot reasonably be expected to have to honor an agreement that did not have full disclosure. As has been pointed out on this website, one cannot agree to that which they were not given access to full information.
On the other hand, if America walks away, this likely means the immediate end of all so called sanctions and weapons embargoes without any inspections even the weak ones currently in place. Also, as John Kerry likely correctly pointed out, to walk away would likely undermine the role of the US dollar as world reserve currency.
In a bad situation like this any kind of good deal for America would have been problematic at best. Unfortunately it seems the powers that be got an even worse deal!!
This still might work. A much better approach would be to try and cultivate favorable relations with Iran's chief ally, Russia. They would likely be in a close position to be able to monitor Iran and ensure they do not engage in activities that would harm us. Also, they could influence Iran to tone down its "death to America" calling card. How might we go about getting Russia on our side on this and other issues? This should probably be the focus of American diplomacy not on trying to negotiate fruitless deals with countries like Iran that even if they are good on paper there's no way we can enforce them.
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