Analyst: JCPOA unfair as it guilts Iran, compromises security

The Iran nuclear deal faults the Islamic Republic for developing its nuclear energy, and while the US has not found hard evidence for a nuclear weapons program it continues to push false evidence to service a narrative backed by Israel, according to political analyst and writer Julia Kassem.  

Kassem, who is based in Beirut, Lebanon, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday while commenting on the recent assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in a small city east of the capital Tehran in an ambush attack on his vehicle involving an explosion and machine gun fire on Friday.

Fakhrizadeh’s death came two years after Netanyahu, during an erroneous presentation about Iran's nuclear activities, warned the world to “remember that name.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said there were “serious indications” that the Israeli regime was responsible for the assassination.

One American official and two other intelligence officials confirmed to the New York Times that Israel was behind the attack.

Former CIA head John Brennan has denounced the state-sponsored killing of the scientist as a "criminal" act.

He described the assassination as a crime that risked to inflame regional conflict in the Middle East.

Sanders slams 'reckless, illegal' killing of Iranian scientist

Senior US Senator Bernie Sanders says the assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was an "illegal" move aimed at undermining possible talks between Iran and the incoming US administration.

“So from the vantage point of diplomacy, it's clear that's not a consideration or an objective from the West, from the US. As we seen at least in the past one year alone, we can look at 10 years we can look over the last 41 years of US aggression on Iran, there has been an intentional provocation, intentional aggression that completely reaches into the realm of illegality,” said Kassem.

“Last year the murder of Qassem Soleimani was as he was actually pursuing a diplomatic mission to encourage Saudi Arabia to let up on its war on Yemen and on the region, but especially in the past year the increase in aggression through these illegal strikes and through these illegal murders has been actually in pursuit of, requiring a complete subduing and subjugation of Iran and Iranian sovereignty in light of them and their allies’ successes in pushing back against the occupation in the region. That is the only objective of the US, and the only discourse and method in which it achieves its goals is through illegal brutality,” she added.

“So we have to understand that the policies of the American government and the objectives of the American government, particularly in countries that are in opposition to US imperialism will be the same whether it's a Democrat or Republican. Now the specific strategy is what happens to be different,” she noted.

“So Trump pulled out of the JCPOA and imposed heavy duty sanctions on Iran in the past few years, and the murder of the scientist is kind of in line with complicating Biden's approach which aims to reinstate the JCPOA,” she said.

“However, we have to recognize that the Iranian nuclear deal at the same time puts Iran under the presumption of guilt for having a nuclear weapons program, which the United States government themselves despite their narrative has not found hardline evidence for, and still enables, and opens up Iran for investigation and information gathering from the International Atomic Energy Association under the United Nations, which is biased towards Israel and the United States to gather information on Iran's nuclear capabilities,” she concluded.

Iran has most transparent nuclear program among IAEA members: Envoy

‘Iran’s nuclear energy program has been subject to the largest number of inspections by the IAEA.’

US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May 2018 and re-imposed harsh sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticisms, leaving the future of the deal in limbo.

Following its withdrawal, Washington targeted the Iranian nation with the “toughest ever” economic sanctions in order to bring it to its knees, but it failed to achieve its goal. 

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