Anti-Iran Hawks Hard at Work

April 17 , 2021 (EIRNS)—Just as discussion (although indirect) was taking place between the U.S. and Iran last week in Vienna, an attack was carried out on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad was quickly named as the perpetrator of the attack, which came just after Tehran launched the use of new centrifuges and as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Tel Aviv extolling the “enduring and ironclad” commitment of the U.S. to Israel.

This is just the latest provocation designed to scuttle any possibility of the U.S. rejoining the JCPOA. Last summer, a series of explosions linked to Israel rocked Iran, including at Natanz. These took place during the U.S. election campaign, while Joe Biden was promising that he would have the U.S. rejoin the JCPOA from which Trump withdrew in 2018. In November 2020, Israeli operatives killed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist.

In 2015, as Barack Obama was negotiating what became the JCPOA, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington to address a joint session of the Congress. This month, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen will be coming to Washington in hopes of meeting directly with Biden, to convince leaders that Iran is covering up the true extent of its nuclear program. This accusation is pretty rich, coming as it is from a nation that actually has nuclear weapons and refuses to say anything about them!

Sanctions, including those imposed on Iran in the aftermath of Trump’s JCPOA withdrawal are causing immense suffering, pressure on the national currency, and inflation in prices for everything from food to medicine to other necessities, and have limited the government’s ability to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Iran’s patience in spite of these provocations comes from its hopes that a U.S. recommitment to the JCPOA—and lifting the murderous sanctions—is possible. It would be a very good thing for world security, for the people of Iran, and for the soul of the United States.