{"id":8830,"date":"2021-03-02T13:54:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T10:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=8830"},"modified":"2021-05-30T09:47:24","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T06:47:24","slug":"fatwa-controversy-in-iran-complicates-prospects-for-nuclear-talks-with-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/fatwa-controversy-in-iran-complicates-prospects-for-nuclear-talks-with-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatwa Controversy in Iran Complicates Prospects for Nuclear Talks with Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An old religious fatwa<\/a> by Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has initiated debate in recent weeks. It all started when the interpretation of Khamenei\u2019s 2003 fatwa prohibiting nuclear weapons was stretched by Iran\u2019s maverick Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi to imply that Tehran could seek nuclear weapons when under pressure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This debate raises speculation about the direction of Iran\u2019s nuclear program. While Rouhani\u2019s government is scrambling to save the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran\u2019s \u201chardliners\u201d want the United States to lift sanctions before Tehran re-commits to the deal. When the United States pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018 and imposed a harsh regime of sanctions on Iran, Tehran responded by ratcheting up its nuclear activities, particular its enrichment of uranium surpassing permissible levels. Iran recently announced in accordance with its nuclear bill to raise enrichment levels to 20 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To add further fuel to the fire, Iran has promised to scale back its compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and its Parliament on February 23, issued a bill to end the implementation of the Additional<\/a> Protocol, which allows for snap inspections of its nuclear sites. However, to diffuse escalating tensions, the IAEA\u2019s exertions resulted in Iran agreeing last week to a three-month extension to permit its nuclear facilities to be monitored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s hardline Parliament is now trying to thwart Rouhani\u2019s efforts to renegotiate with the United States. On the other hand, in a move that supports Rouhani\u2019s efforts, the new US administration has reversed Trump\u2019s determination that all UN sanctions against Iran had been restored, but it has not responded to Iran\u2019s request to lift sanctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the looks of it, Khamenei is trying to play a balancing game by remaining silent amid the fatwa controversy.  If Rouhani can persuade the United States to lift the sanctions, Iran\u2019s leader will be pleased. He has even signaled his support, given that Iran vowed to immediately return to its obligations under the JCPOA<\/a>, if the United States removes the sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the event that Iran and the United States fail to salvage the JCPOA, Khamenei\u2019s silence will support the \u201chardliners\u201d who oppose working with Washington. This silence is why figures like Alavi who are close to Khamenei are speaking out to defend Iran\u2019s latest nuclear activities which violate the terms of the JCPOA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Alavi, who was appointed directly by Khamenei, thinks the time has arrived to shift Iran\u2019s nuclear policy all together. In a recent interview<\/a> on national television in Iran, Alavi suggested that Tehran had no need to see the US return to the JCPOA, and in fact the  sanctions against Iran strengthened  its nuclear industry. In addition, he alluded to the fact that Iran could decide to develop nuclear weapons if it was pressured further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rouhani<\/a> snubbed Alavi over his remarks and said that Iran\u2019s position regarding nuclear weapons had not changed.\u00a0 Iran has often referred to Khamenei\u2019s 2003 nuclear fatwa<\/a> during the course of nuclear negotiations with the United States, expressing continuously that it is haram <\/em>to produce nuclear weapons. However, a fatwa is a fluid religious ruling<\/a> that can change in accordance with the times and circumstances under Shiite Islamic law, a point recently confirmed by Amir Mousavi, an\u00a0Iranian diplomat and a \u201chardline\u201d member of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence indicates that Iran\u2019s nuclear activities are bringing it closer to possessing nuclear weapons.  Khamenei said recently that Iran has the capacity to  increase uranium enrichment<\/a> levels to higher than 20 percent to reach even 60 percent. These levels are sufficient to help Iran weaponize quickly. Israeli officials say it will take Iran five months to produce three bombs<\/a> if it can  further accelerate its uranium enrichment activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran-based analysts like Hadi Nasserian are urging for the quick lifting of sanctions to prevent Iran\u2019s further radicalization. But like so many other signals coming from Iran, his perspective is unlikely to convince the United States that sanctions should be removed. Meanwhile, the US State Department<\/a> has said that it is very concerned by Alavi\u2019s remarks regarding the 2003 nuclear fatwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It remains to be seen if tensions between Rouhani and Iran\u2019s \u201chardliners\u201d over the fate of Iran\u2019s nuclear program will escalate in the coming weeks and months, or if Tehran decides to reach an agreement with the United States because of pragmatic calculations.\u00a0 For now, Iran is trying to increase pressure on the Biden administration to concede ground prior to new nuclear talks, whereas on the other hand, the US strikes targeting Iranian proxies in Syria indicate Washington\u2019s attempts to impose pressure on Tehran to concede ground first. The Biden administration wants Iran to make the first move towards new nuclear talks, but with the \u201chardliners\u201d dominant in Tehran, it remains to be seen whether Rouhani can venture out, or if the nuclear talks will become more of a distant dream when the \u201chardliners\u201d take the presidency this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An old religious fatwa by Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has initiated debate in recent weeks. It all started when the interpretation of Khamenei\u2019s 2003 fatwa prohibiting nuclear weapons was stretched by Iran\u2019s maverick Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi to imply that Tehran could seek nuclear weapons when under pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[859,5746,55,708,1257,412],"class_list":["post-8830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-fatwa","tag-fatwa-controversy","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-deal","tag-nuclear-program","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9108,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8830\/revisions\/9108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}