Iran's nuclear genie is out of the bottle
Alireza Jafarzadeh
April 16, 2012
After a yearlong round of escalating
international economic sanctions and rhetoric, the regime in
Iran has finally come around to raising expectations that it
will take some constructive steps in reining in its nuclear
weapons ambitions. But this cycle of threat and
accommodation has played out before, and its outcome should
have been predictable.
According to the information provided by Iranian dissidents
obtained from their sources inside the regime, as well as
the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency, the nuclear genie is out
of the bottle in Iran, and the regime's genius for delay and
subterfuge will only give it the time to complete the dash
to a workable weapon.
Every major effort by the U.S. to negotiate with Iran since
the 1979 revolution has failed. The regime has always
received its ransom: weapons from President Ronald Reagan,
the listing of the democratic opposition group the
Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) as a "terrorist" group by
President Bill Clinton — by giving a glimmer of hope and
then delivering nothing in return.
This cycle continues with the Obama administration. The
Iranian nuclear envoy expressed confidence about an offer
put on the table by the West in October 2009 as a step
toward solving the nuclear issue. Then, after the uprising
in Iran was violently suppressed in 2009, Iran announced the
nuclear deal was unacceptable. Meanwhile, Iran had enriched
uranium to the 20 percent level, a significant scientific
leap toward acquiring fissile material for the bomb.
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The regime is motivated by fanatical zeal and an outsized
sense of importance in the region. The acquisition of
nuclear weapons is conflated with these motives, and that is
why no amount of political concessions and economic
incentives can stop this drive.
Information obtained by the network inside Iran of MEK makes
it abundantly clear that Iran has expanded the organization
responsible for nuclear weapons development. Their findings
reveal a complete, elaborate and highly secret research
structure and a network for procurement of the parts and
equipment required to build nuclear weapons.
Identities of 60 directors and experts working in various
parts of this organization (abbreviated in Farsi as SPND)
and 11 institutions and companies affiliated with it have
been detailed. The underground nuclear site near the holy
city of Qom known as Fordow, which has been involved in
enriching uranium to 20 percent (dubbed by Tehran as
necessary fuel for its medical research) is actually run by
SPND and controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps.
This information sharply contradicts the assessment by some
in the administration that Iran has not yet made the
decision to go forward with the weapons program, as well as
the observation by others who suggest that Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei has forbidden the development of a nuclear
bomb.
Iran's foreign minister, ahead of nuclear talks, suggested
that the negotiations should be used only to build trust,
making it clear that the Iranian regime's leaders had
already decided to use the talks to buy even more time,
without making any concessions.
With each attempt at negotiation with Iran, America has
fashioned a lash for its own back. It's time to turn one of
those lashes against the regime. As a majority of members of
Congress stated, the dissident group, MEK, which exposed key
nuclear sites of Iran, was unjustifiably put on the list of
terrorist organizations as one of many U.S. efforts to
placate Tehran. This is an unarmed, secular group dedicated
to a democratic and non-nuclear Iran. The regime rightly
fears and hates it and devotes its resources to destroy or
demonize it.
President Barack Obama should delist the group immediately,
just as a U.S. Court of Appeals has urged him to consider
doing on the basis of a lack of evidence against the
dissidents. Doing so will call Iran on its bluffing, and it
is a reasonable step that falls between insufficient
sanctions and unimaginable warfare. Doing so is consistent
with U.S. efforts to be on the side of the millions in Iran,
who showed the world that they want the ruling theocracy
overturned. It is time for America to change course.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is the author of "The Iran Threat:
President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis." He
exposed the nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in 2002, which
triggered the International Atomic Energy Agency inspections
of the Iranian nuclear sites. His email is
jafarzadeh@spcwashington.com.
Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and
its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the
existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the
Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.
