Within hours of the White House celebrating a supposed Iran nuclear framework “deal,” it became apparent that the various sides — the U.S., the Iranians and the Europeans — had very different understandings of the deal.
Those competing narratives now have moved to the stage of open declarations by senior Iranian officials that the White House is lying and that key elements in a White House Fact Sheet never were agreed upon and are unacceptable.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has taken to Twitter to call the Obama administration a bunch of untrustworthy liars:
Key elements of the supposed deal also are rejected, such as a gradual easing of sanctions and inspection of security installations:
This is all consistent with what the Iranian President Rouhani has said publicly:
Iran’s president said on Thursday that Tehran would not sign a final nuclear deal with world powers unless all sanctions against the Islamic Republic were removed immediately“We will not sign any agreements unless on the first day of the implementation of the deal all economic sanctions are totally lifted on the same day,” Rouhani said in a televised speech….Western governments, which have imposed their own sanctions over and above those adopted by the United Nations, have been pushing for it to happen only gradually.“In return for Iran’s future cooperation, we and our international partners will provide relief in phases from the sanctions that have impacted Iran’s economy,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said last week.
Defense Minister Hossein Dehgan rejects any inspection of military sites:
“No such agreement has been reached and basically, visiting military centers are among the red lines and no visit to these centers will be allowed,” Brigadier General Hossein Dehgan said, according to Iranian media reports quoting a Defense Ministry statement.Dehgan said international media reports to the effect that the deal will allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts to inspect military centers across Iran were “lies” and “deceits.”
Further, Iran’s Foreign Minister, who negotiated the “deal” has promised that Iran immediately will start using its most advanced centrifuges, contrary to claims that Iran only would use older generation centrifuges:
Iran’s negotiator in the nuclear negotiations and its nuclear chief revealed on Tuesday that after a final deal is signed by a June 30 deadline on the framework reached last week, Iran will unleash its most advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment, threatening a quick turnover in producing a nuclear weapon.Iran’s semi-official FARS news agency reported on a closed meeting held Tuesday by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) chief Ali Akbar Salehi, in which they briefed members of Iran’s parliament on the deal being finalized.In their statements, they said Iran’s most advanced IR-8 centrifuges will be used as soon as the deal removing world sanctions against Iran begins.
Contrast these statements from Iranian officials with how President Obama characterized the “deal” just after it was announced:
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