The US State Department uses convoluted logic when it deals with Iran’s nuclear issues, blaming Tehran after it was Washington that canceled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an American writer and former professor says.
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just removed the final waivers to countries who were still doing business with Iran, under the JCPOA, which the Trump administration revoked,” said E Michael Jones, the current editor of Culture Wars magazine.
“This is going to eliminate the last ability to have some type of economic exchange,” he told Press TV in an interview on Saturday.
Pompeo made the announcement on Wednesday amid Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iranians.
“Today, I am ending the sanctions waiver for JCPOA-related projects in Iran, effective in 60 days,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter.
He further repeated his baseless allegations that “Iran’s continued nuclear escalation makes clear this cooperation must end."
"Further attempts at nuclear extortion will only bring greater pressure on" Iran, he added.
Pompeo, however, provided a separate waiver for the Bushehr nuclear power plant “to ensure safety of operations” for the next 90 days.
In 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the internationally backed nuclear deal, negotiated under his predecessor, Barack Obama, three years earlier.
Ever since, the US has renewed the waivers every 60 days, with the last one on March 30.
“We will continue to closely monitor all developments in Iran’s nuclear program and can modify this waiver at any time,” Pompeo claimed in a statement released by the State Department when announcing the previous sanctions waivers.
Jones said, “The justification that Pompeo used was that Iran is enriching uranium in order to produce weapons. This is a little bit contradictory because the whole point of the JCPOA was Iran agreeing not to enrich uranium, in order to evade the sanctions.”
“So we've got this convoluted logic here of the United States State Department, which is blaming Iran for the very thing that they signed the agreement not to do. Now, if there is no agreement there is no reason why Iran should not enrich nuclear material,” he added.
“And if there's no agreement, there's no reason why Iran should not have nuclear weapons. That was the whole point of the JCPOA, which the United States revoked,” he noted.
“So the whole point of this exercise shows the futility of unilaterally overthrowing diplomatic agreements. It makes no sense in the end. It is counterproductive. And it leads to the very results that the United States is hoping to avoid,” he concluded.
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