Experts urge return to Iran nuclear deal as prospects dim

Experts urge return to Iran nuclear deal as prospects dim

Washington Post -April 21,2022

By Karen DeYoung

A group of 40 former government officials and leading nonproliferation experts have urged President Biden to successfully complete negotiations for a return to the nuclear deal with Iran, warning that Tehran is a week or two away from producing sufficient weapons-grade uranium to fuel a bomb.

In a statement to be released Thursday, the experts said failure to reverse the policies of the Trump administration, which withdrew from the agreement between world powers and Iran in 2018, would be “irresponsible” and “would increase the danger that Iran would become a threshold nuclear-weapon state.”

All sides in the negotiations are expressing increasing pessimism that a new agreement can be reached to restart the 2015 deal, under which Iran sharply limited its nuclear program and submitted to strict international verification in exchange for the lifting of U.S. and international sanctions.

Those efforts have focused on persuading the United States to offer a partial lifting of the IRGC designation and urging Tehran to reciprocate with concessions on areas of U.S. concern outside the parameters of the nuclear deal, which include Iran’s support for foreign proxy militias and its ballistic missile program.

Virtually all Republican lawmakers and many Democrats have voiced opposition to any deal with Iran, disapproval that has escalated with reports that the administration has considered lifting the IRGC terrorist designation. Inside the administration, there is widespread agreement on the dangers of not renewing the agreement, but significant differences over whether the nuclear risk outweighs the political minefield.

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