Protesting Sanctions

"Iran has ended the talks because of the addition of more individuals and companies to the sanctions list. It was against the path of agreements."
IRNA, official news agency

Ah, injured innocence.... Well, why not? It's as good a pretense as any other, to claim that one's partner in very high-level talks where trust is never ambiguous and honour and respect are freely given because they are entitlements, to accuse the other of having broken faith. The Islamic Republic of Iran believes itself to be working from strength. Its expert team has halted technical talks in Vienna.

Nowhere in the nascent agreement with the G5+1 is there any mention of their ongoing research into more accurate, more powerful ballistic missiles. And they have recently boasted, post-signing of the Geneva agreement on uranium enrichment and a pause in their nuclear agenda, that they are using advanced laser technology to pin-point targets with greater accuracy.

Iran is also trumpeting yet another success in sending a primate into space and retrieving the space vessel and primate intact. Such impressive technical prowess. And a truly astonishing amount of funding that must have gone into these enterprises, with more yet to come. Where does the impoverished, constrained, sanctions-ridden country derive such experimental-research wealth from?

After all, the twofold purpose of signing the six-month treaty between Iran and the G5+1 (or United States as front power) was to find a way to discourage Iran from its goal of achieving a nuclear arsenal -- or, as Iran would have it for wide international consumption; to fulfill its domestic energy needs and medical isotope-production -- and to exchange that guarantee for sanctions-relief.

But then, things are not always as they seem. The United States has more or loss gone into a state of disinterest in the Middle East and its fractiously violent and ever so irritatingly unexpected explosions of 'unrest' and 'dissatisfaction' against its perceived oppressors. Nor has its world-Marshall assignment relating to peace and security prompted it to ensure that the world be safe from Iran possessing nuclear weapons.

It is not entirely unaware of Iran's penchant for intrigue and disingenuous protestations of innocence and false accusations, for it has invented to an exquisite degree a cultural technique of dissimulation (takia), whereby it is entirely permissible to lie, and cheat and pledge and call upon honour, all for the purpose of disarming suspicion however temporarily to allow themselves time to further their aspirations.

Iran is doubtless delighted at the deliberate naivette of its accusers who half-heartedly apply pressure on an acknowledged master of intransigence. Those centrifuges will keep spinning because they have been allowed to; work on the heavy-water plant at Arak will continue because it's not at critical sites, and thus permissible, albeit questionable. Work on ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads-delivery will continue because, well because they're integral to Iran's needs.

Iran's heavy water plant in Arak: the west fears it could be used in the process of making a nuclear bomb. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

 And meanwhile, Tehran is really quite incensed that the U.S., continuing its enforcement of existing law has named a few other blacklisted entities. Violation! screeches Oran triumphantly ... breaking the agreement. Congress has been asked to hold off on added measures in favour of patience to determine whether a comprehensive nuclear deal could be accomplished with trustworthy Iran. However....

The Islamic Republic of Iran is utterly heartbroken at the "unconstructive and against good intentions" movement by the United States. "This is a game of double standards -- it is not in accord with the talks we have had and it is against the spirit of the Geneva agreement. On the one hand they tried to halt sanctions in Congress, and on the other hand they made a new move and the Treasury added new companies to the list", grieved senior nuclear negotiator and deputy foreign minister  Abbas Araghchi.

How can an honourable and trustworthy country like Iran possibly place its trust in a mendaciously perfidious nation like the United States which never hesitates to engage in double standards, betraying the belief that they can be a partner for peace?