Of Course, Nuclear for Peaceful Purposes

Iran's supreme leader rejects interviews with his country's nuclear scientists.

"Iran has agreed to grant managed access to military sites."
"Americans are after interviewing our nuclear scientists We didn't accept it."
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi

"Managed access will be in a shape where UN inspectors will have the possibility of taking environmental samples from the vicinity of military sites."
Ahmad Shoohani, lawmaker, member of Iranian Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee

"Regarding inspections, we have said that we will not let foreigners inspect any military centre."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Well, then, which is it? Iranian leaders will say whatever they think the international community, and particularly the UN Security Council members and Germany want them to say. And in the same breath they deny they have said any such thing. So access to military sites by the International Atomic Energy Commission inspectors will be granted, on the other hand, it won't be, because the Republican Guard, in command of military sites and nuclear sites as well, won't allow it.

The very thought of it is anathema to a state that reserves its inalienable right to tinker with nuclear devices on the grounds of its military sites and to continue to enrich uranium through its busy centrifuges until it achieves its goal. The "managed access" that Iranian state television reported based on statements from the deputy foreign minister represents a mirage, one that seems achievable but will never come to fruition.

And for a quite sound reason; though those restricted inspections of military sites would be carried out under strict control and circumscribed auspices, Supreme Leader Khamenei stated he would not permit international inspection of Iran's military sites, let alone access to Iranian scientists under any nuclear agreement.

It's a toss-up whether Iran is more anxious to seal an agreement to have sanctions lifted, or whether Russia, China, the U.S. Britain, France and Germany avidly require that agreement to prove just how serious they are about nuclear non-proliferation. And the weight of their combined persuasive efforts to convince the Islamic Republic of Iran that cooperation beats belligerence.

"The fact is, the NPT’s [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's] existence [signed in 1970] makes the world a much safer place. [All it takes is to imagine where nuclear weapons might emerge] for some chilling scenarios to form pretty quickly", stated Steven Pifer, director of the Brookings Institution's Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, in Washington. "Once you’ve taken on that obligation, [of moral restraint by signing on to the NPT] it creates a certain moral barrier to acquiring nuclear weapons."

The June 30 deadline for a final nuclear deal is a month into the future. Supposedly a top priority of the United States was to ensure that inspection of those military sites held to be the venue of integral parts of the country's nuclear program, be carried out. The Republican Guard appears to view the request for interviews of Iran's nuclear scientists representative of a criminal interrogation.

Non-proliferation experts are as concerned about the potential of Iran's achieving nuclear warheads as are its neighbours in the Middle East. Experts themselves are divided on the prospect of the emerging nuclear deal with Iran and what it conceivably purports. While some give the deal credit as a reinforcement blocking Iran from a fast breakout to nuclear weapons while pursuing "peaceful" energy uses, others view the deal as undermining the global nonproliferation regime.

"You can’t escape the fact that this agreement legitimizes Iran having a native uranium enrichment program, and if your concern is nonproliferation, I think that’s a bad thing", Sharon Squassoni, director of the Proliferation Prevention Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington commented. And when Iran succeeds in fitting nuclear warheads to its advanced delivery systems?

Hossein Salami, the deputy head of the Revolutionary Guard: "We will chase you [Israelis] house to house and will take revenge for every drop of blood of our martyrs in Palestine, and this is the beginning point of Islamic nations awakening for your defeat." (2014)
Salami: "Today we are aware of how the Zionist regime is slowly being erased from the world, and indeed, soon, there will be no such thing as the Zionist regime on Planet Earth." (2014)
Hossein Sheikholeslam, the secretary-general of the Committee for Support for the Palestinian Intifada: "The issue of Israel's destruction is important, no matter the method. We will obviously implement the strategy of the Imam Khomeini and the Leader [Khamenei] on the issue of destroying the Zionists. The region will not be quiet so long as Israel exists in it ..." (2014)
Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard: "The Revolutionary Guards will fight to the end of the Zionist regime ... We will not rest easy until this epitome of vice is totally deleted from the region's geopolitics." (2015)