Does Iran-Deal have Bad Provisions?

Brief Analysis | REPORT SYNDICATION

During the presidency of Barack Obama, six powerful countries – China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the USA – had entered into a nuclear agreement with Iran, namely the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), also widely known as the Iran Deal or Iran Nuclear Deal. 

Under the deal, Iran was supposed to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its nuclear facilities. In reciprocity, the international community would withdraw the sanctions imposed on Iran.

However, the USA has, under Trump administration, recently withdrawn itself from the Iran deal. President Donald Trump has also promised to impose new nuclear and economic sanctions on Iran.

Bad provisions of Iran deal!

The major purposes of the deal were to keep Iran away from (i) nuclear activities of military nature, (ii) sponsoring terrorist groups and (iii) destabilizing the Middle East.

Under the deal, Iran was, as mentioned earlier, supposed to give the IAEA inspectors the access to its nuclear facilities for inspection purposes. However, there were some provision in the deal that blurs the idea of inspecting any facilities at anytime.

These were the provisions that many analysts were critical about. For example, an excerpt from Asia Times article reads:

“Under the deal’s terms, in response to the demand of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to access a suspected Iranian site, Iran will be able to delay the inspection by 14 to 24 days – which certainly would give it ample time to hide or destroy evidence of any nuclear weapon program that it might have been pursuing secretly.”

Another excerpt from the same article reads:

“What’s more, the JCPOA does not clarify whether the IAEA inspectors have access to Iranian military sites, and the Iranian defense minister and foreign minister clearly proclaimed that military sites were off limits.”

This might have allowed Iran to carryout activities related to a nuclear-weapons program inside those military sites.

Perhaps, these are the reasons why many analyst are worried that if the deal continues, Iran will soon achieve nuclear-weapon capability. They believe the deal shouldn’t have been made at the first place.