After repeatedly boasting that it could restart weapons-grade uranium production in a matter of days, Iran continued to make a mockery of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal by flatly rejecting a U.S. demand for United Nations inspection of Iranian military bases.
The request for inspections was made on Friday by America’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.
“I have good confidence in the IAEA, but they are dealing with a country that has a clear history of lying and pursuing covert nuclear programs,” Haley said after visiting International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna.
She encouraged the IAEA to use “all the authorities they have and to pursue every angle possible” to verify Iranian compliance and noted the Iran nuclear deal (also known as the JCPOA) “made no distinction between military and non-military sites.”
Iran rejected Haley’s arguments and the U.S. demand for inspections on Tuesday.
“The Americans should take the dream of being able to inspect our military sites, be it under the pretext of the JCPOA or based on any other justification, to the grave,” sneered Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, which is the pivot of resistance in the region, will not allow the Americans and non-Americans to inspect military sites, which are a crucial and strategic part of national security,” he declared.
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatam said Haley’s request for inspections is “not even worth mentioning” and vowed to “boost defensive power so much that no one would dare violate Iran.”
Deputy Defense Minister for Parliamentarian Affairs Reza Talaei Neek applauded Iran’s evolution into a “prominent missile power” and called for even more missile research and development, along with the expansion of Iran’s “strategic air force.” Iran claims to have developed its own stealth fighter, although outside experts are skeptical of its capabilities.
“The information with regard to Iran’s military sites are classified and access to such locations, specially [sic] by the US, is definitely wishful thinking by them,” agreed Mohammed Baqer Nobakht, a spokesman for the administration of President Hassan Rouhani.
“Iran’s military sites are off limits,” Nobakht stressed. “All information about these sites are classified. Iran will never allow such visits. Don’t pay attention to such remarks that are only a dream.”
So much for the Obama administration’s prized delusion of forward-looking, Western-friendly, moderate secular leaders battling the reactionary hardline theocracy for control of Iran’s destiny. They’re all on the same page about what a joke Obama’s nuclear deal was and saying exactly what the strongest critics of the JCPOA predicted they would say. All that remains of this farce is for Obama defenders to castigate President Trump for wishing to dispense with a deal that Iran feels free to ignore at its convenience.
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