Two US Senate hawks pushing for new Iran nuclear deal

Two anti-Iran senators from different parties have teamed up to come up with a plan to reach a new nuclear deal with Iran.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Robert Menendez traveled to Europe earlier this month to discuss their new nuclear plan with the European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the Washington Post reported.

They have assured the European leaders that the final deal would be ratified by the Senate in order to avoid the fate of the previous nuclear deal with Iran, scrapped by the US President Donald Trump.

The new scheme allegedly includes the allies of the United States in the Persian Gulf.

The plan reportedly offers free access to to nuclear fuel for civilian energy purposes. In exchange, both Iran and the Persian Gulf countries are expected to abandon fuel enrichment inside their own countries forever. Iran would also benefit a limited sanctions relief.

“The goal is to give Iran nuclear power without enrichment. That way they can have what they say they want, nuclear power. And the world never has to worry about a bomb, because you can’t make a bomb unless you enrich,” Graham claimed.

Tehran has maintained that nuclear enrichment is its absolute right, thus non-negotiable.

Based on the Graham-Menendez plan, Washington and Tehran would subsequently negotiate a comprehensive agreement includding restrictions on Iran’s missile program in exchange for broader sanctions relief.

Iran has time and again asserted that ts missile program is merely defensive and peaceful. Tehran has also repeatedly said that it would not negotiate while being under pressure.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, reiterated in a recent meeting with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossithat  that Tehran is open to talks on the country’s nuclear program but will not bow to pressure for its decisions.

He underlined that “Iran welcomes negotiation and logic but will not make any decisions under pressure.”

US' ‘embedded irrationality’ eroding optimism in JCPOA: Iran's nuclear chief

Iran

Tehran and six major world powers -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- signed a nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2015, which was ratified in the form of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

But, Donald Trump, a stern critic of the landmark agreement, unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism in an attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade.

“I think the [current Iran nuclear deal] is fatally flawed, but that’s not the end of the discussion,” Graham said of the deal that took over a decade to negotiate. 

Under Washington’s pressure, the three European signatories to the JCPOA have so far failed to protect Tehran’s business interests.

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