Uranium enriched at 20 percent: the decision that reveals who really commands in Tehran
The Iranian regime has announced the resumption of uranium enrichment to 20 percent at the Fordow underground plant. It is a dangerous decision, which not only violates the 2015 agreement on the nuclear program, to which Tehran still voluntarily adheres, but brings the Islamic Republic closer to an intermediate and dangerous threshold of enrichment, which can easily be raised to 90 percent. the one needed to build the nuclear bomb.
The spokesman for the Iranian Atomic Agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, directly gave the news of the Iranian decision, after the positive opinion of President Rouhani. According to Kamalvandi, the Iranian government's decision follows the new law passed by Parliament called "Strategic action to lift sanctions", which "commits" the government to produce 120 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 percent in a short time.
When this law was passed, President Rouhani revolted, arguing that nuclear issues were not the responsibility of the Majles. Not only that: he publicly opposed it , claiming that it affected the diplomatic interests of the Islamic Republic. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Rouhani also hinted that the law was the result of the parliamentarians' decision to position themselves politically, ahead of the presidential elections in June 2021.
What, then, is the political significance of the Iranian regime's step forward on nuclear power, approved by Rouhani himself? There are two possible readings. The first, the most immediate, is that Rouhani converted on the road to Damascus, supporting the most extremist positions for electoral purposes. But, if this were the reason, it would not explain his public opposition to the law passed by the Majles just a month ago and his invitation to Biden to return to the nuclear deal. However, read this way, the 20 percent enrichment may also have been an Iranian diplomatic choice to force the hand and persuade Biden to return to JCPOA by means of the threat.
The second reading is that the Iranian parliament is now in the hands of ultra-conservatives loyal to Supreme Leader Khamenei. The former mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, former member of the Pasdaran and interested in running for the presidency in June 2021, presides over the Parliament. In short, according to this second hypothesis, Rouhani more than a protagonist of this decision a mere performer. Read in this sense, the figure of the president – as well as that of the foreign minister Zarif – proves increasingly secondary within the Iranian regime's power system.
Again it would be shown that in Iran the center of power is elsewhere than the "traditional institutions". The real center of power is the one that gravitates around the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guards, little interested in a new agreement with the United States, in order to make the most financially, in the name of "economic jihad". That the real political and economic power in Iran resides in the parallel state is well known. Proof of this is always important, to understand how the regime really works in Iran.
And if the exact reading were to prove to be the first – Rouhani accomplice and not mere executor – there would be yet another confirmation that the Iranian president was never a moderate, but an ally of the most extremist fringes of the regime. But on the other hand, even in this case, it would not be a real surprise, given that Rouhani is the same person who – by his own admission – negotiated in 2003 the Tehran agreement with the E3 group (Germany, France and Great Britain) , just to buy time and get the undisturbed regime to complete the clandestine enrichment plants.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/uranio-arricchito-al-20-per-cento-la-decisione-che-rivela-chi-comanda-davvero-a-teheran/ on Thu, 07 Jan 2021 04:51:40 +0000.