Political analyst Rafiqzadeh:

EU policy towards Iran's rulers is 'disastrous and dangerous'

  • Uranium enrichment has gone a long way that no one knows about.

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  • The Atomic Energy Agency has been cut off for periods of monitoring what is happening inside Iranian reactors, which casts doubt on Iran's progress towards building a bomb.

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  • The European Union turned a blind eye to credible reports regarding Iran's continued violation of the nuclear agreement.

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Despite the justifications given by former US President Donald Trump for announcing the US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement on May 8, 2018, and the announcement of the re-imposition of US sanctions related to nuclear activity, the European Union did not stop declaring its “firm” commitment to continue supporting the agreement.

Majid Rafiqzadeh, President of the American International Council for the Middle East, said in a report published by the American Gatestone Institute, that over the nearly six years since the nuclear agreement was reached in 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the position of the European Union has been characterized by appeasement. Iran's rulers.

Rafiqzadeh added that what the European Union did not realize is that its soft policy towards Iran's rulers is a complete and dangerous disaster.

Immediately after reaching the nuclear agreement, which by the way was never signed by the Iranian regime, the European Union, along with the administration of former President Barack Obama, lifted almost all of its economic sanctions imposed on Iran.

Rafiqzadeh, a member of the Harvard International Review’s board of directors at Harvard University, said that this is a gift that helped the Iranian regime re-integrate into the global financial system, and the European Union also made many concessions to Iran, such as agreeing to include special clauses, that would Iran's rulers will soon be able to acquire as many nuclear weapons as they wish.

It seemed that Germany and France were among the first countries that rushed to revive trade activities with the rulers of Iran.

Since that time, with the reconnection of nearly 30 Iranian banks to the Society for International Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the volume of trade between the European Union and Iran has increased by about 43%.

Advise

On the other hand, the European Union, which has never stopped advising other countries on how they should behave, has turned a blind eye to credible reports regarding Iran's continued violation of the nuclear deal, as well as its continued clandestine nuclear activities.

A year after the conclusion of the nuclear agreement, the German Constitutional Protection Agency (internal intelligence) revealed in its annual report that the Iranian government continued a secret approach during the validity of the nuclear agreement to obtain nuclear technology and equipment illegally from German companies “at a high level in terms of quantity.” According to international standards.

Although the United States subsequently withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions, the European Union, Washington's long-standing transatlantic ally, opted not to withdraw, refused to reimpose sanctions on Iran and then sought to maintain its trade dealings with Tehran.

Three European governments, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, devised a mechanism, the Instrument to Support Trade Exchange (Instex), which is based in Paris and was primarily intended to circumvent US sanctions.

appease

* Rafiqzadeh explained that the result of the European Union's policy of appeasing Iran's rulers was the commercial activity of Europe, and at the same time, Iran's leaders became closer than before in acquiring nuclear weapons.

Rafiqzadeh said that it was found that the Iranian regime was involved in a series of assassinations, hostage-taking and other hostilities across Europe, some of which succeeded while others failed.

European officials were able to thwart a terrorist attack targeting the large "Free Iran" conference in Paris, which in June 2018 was attended by many high-level speakers, including former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird.

In 2020, Assadollah Asadi, an Iranian diplomat, was sentenced in Belgium to 20 years in prison for trying to plant a bomb.

Perhaps the European Union would do well when it sees how Iran's military adventurism has escalated in the Middle East, and will continue to rise unless it is stopped.

Since the European Union began to appease the Iranian regime, the Middle East has seen more Houthi missile attacks on civilian targets in Saudi Arabia, and the deployment of thousands of infantry soldiers affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria.

Rafiqzadeh emphasized that if Iran had a nuclear capability, it would no longer even have to use terrorism or hostage-taking, or even its new bombs, to blackmail Europe, and that merely threatening to use one of these means should suffice.

At the conclusion of his report, Rafiqzadeh called on the European Union to hurry to wake up in time and change its dangerous policy towards Iran.

• Reconnecting about 30 Iranian banks to the Association for International Financial Communications between Banks (SWIFT), which increased the volume of trade between the European Union and Iran by about 43%.


• One year after the conclusion of the nuclear agreement, the German Constitutional Protection Authority revealed in its annual report that the Iranian government continued a secret approach during the validity of the nuclear agreement to obtain nuclear technology illegally from German companies.

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