Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and author of the award winning book “A Time to Betray” (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).
He posted an article at the Daily Caller yesterday about the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran that have been taking place in Geneva since 2006. The talks reached an interim agreement when the sanctions placed on Iran began to take a toll on the Iranian economy. Many of those sanctions have been loosened, and Iran has been allowed to continue on its merry way of developing nuclear weapons capable of reaching all of the Middle East, Europe, and America.
The article reports:
Instead, the regime has adopted a policy of “elongation” with the 5+1 nations in which it strings along the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany as it develops nuclear weapons, wrote Alireza Forghani.
Forghani is a senior analyst and strategy specialist in the supreme leader’s camp and closely aligned with Mehdi Taeb, who heads the regime’s Ammar Strategic Base, a radical think thank, and thus speaks with the blessing of the Islamic regime.
“Elongation” is Iran’s sole doctrine, Forghani wrote, in which the Geneva negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran were “never supposed to be brought to a successful conclusion … whether positive or negative.” Those talks began in 2006 and have been extended several times as one deadline after another failed to produce a comprehensive agreement. The two sides agreed on Nov. 24 to yet another deadline extension, this time to June 30, 2015.
Forghani warned that soon he will promote the slogan “Nuclear weapon is our definite right,” and that there will be people in the streets demanding a nuclear-armed Iran. He also promised the destruction of Israel, which he claimed “is exactly what Almighty God wants.”
So far, Iran has gotten all of the concessions it has wanted from the western powers. It is following the path that North Korea followed in order to become a nuclear power. Frankly, I don’t think the fact that either of those two countries have nuclear weapons makes anyone safer.
I believe that one of the reasons Iran has been so bold about keeping its centrifuges is that it does not fear an attack by Israel. The conventional wisdom is that American pressure is preventing that attack. However, I also believe that if America turns its back on Israel in any way, Israel will deal with Iran’s nuclear program. I also believe that America is already in the process of turning its back on Israel.
The nuclear talks have been extended until June 2015. It is a reasonably safe assumption that Iran agreed to that deadline because they expect their nuclear program to be up and running before that deadline. At that point, Iran will be a nuclear nation and the talks will be moot.
The article further reports:
As reported in April 2012, an analysis by Mohammad Mohammadi, an Iranian international affairs and nuclear program analyst, concluded that the country no longer needs to compromise with the U.S.
“It is quite clear that when we watch the current arguments between America and Israel over Iran, the Obama administration is quite confused,” Mohammadi said in the Keyhan newspaper, an outlet under Khamenei’s direct supervision.
In his article, titled “The Lessons from the Past for the Negotiations in April,” Mohammadi wrote: “Looking back at the past decade, all the red lines by America and the West over Iran’s nuclear issue have now been transformed into acceptance. America has always adopted radical actions at first that have changed to symbolic measures later. Iran has always known that America and the West needed a way to solve the nuclear issue with some honor, and today it is quite visible that with the defeat of America’s policies toward Iran, the talk about a need to solve the Iranian nuclear issue diplomatically is a way to obtain that honor.”
Another diplomatic victory for the Obama Administration.
