Major General Hassan Firouzabadi has reportedly written an open letter warning Iranian negotiators not to give Western nations access to Iran’s military sites.
The Tehran Times reports that Gen. Firouzabadi published the letter Sunday to remind negotiators of the guidelines already set by Ayatollah Khamenei. Khamenei’s stated resistance to inspections at military sites has been repeated by several other Iranian leaders over the past month.
Gen. Firouzabadi was particularly concerned about language that appeared in the U.S. fact sheet, which stated that Iran had agreed to inspections “anywhere in the country.” He writes that such wide open snap inspections would expose Iran’s military to intelligence and security threats.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Secretary of State John Kerry was trying to reassure Israel that the deal would prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. Kerry promised that tough inspections would take place in Iran “every single day.” He also denounced the “hysteria about this deal.”
Chief Iranian negotiator Javad Zarif sounded an upbeat note on Twitter Sunday:
Drafting #IranDeal is moving forward. Hard work, and many brackets, remain. Determined to end this manufactured crisis & open new horizons.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 3, 2015
Zarif’s reference to a “manufactured crisis” is likely a reference to another contested issue in the negotiations. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program has always been exclusively peaceful, but the IAEA, relying on over 1,000 pages of documents provided by member states, says Iran has researched nuclear weapons.
Another item highlighted by the U.S. fact sheet is a promise that Iran will come clean on this past research as a prerequisite for the removal of sanctions. But so far, Iran has shown no signs of changing its tune.
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