A few days before the resumption of negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear issue in Vienna, on November 29, very few concrete details are known on the positioning of the new Iranian president, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi, elected in June, if not. is that it remains firm. The words of certain authorities of the new administration already attest to this. On November 10, Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani announced that the Vienna talks should hardly be called “Nuclear negotiations”, since, according to Tehran, these issues have been resolved “Completely” under the 2015 agreement.
Instead, the next negotiations must focus “Exclusively “ on the lifting ofs “illegal sanctions”, added Mr. Bagheri Kani. In 2018, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Nuclear “deal”, which has led to the return of numerous American sanctions against Tehran. In response, the Islamic Republic of Iran had resumed much of its nuclear activities. Today, Tehran’s uranium stock is growing rapidly. A part is enriched to 60%, while, according to the terms of the agreement, this level must not exceed 3.67%.
An atomic weapon in a month
According to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think tank in the United States specializing in the analysis of nuclear weapons, Tehran could produce enough fissile material to build an atomic weapon in a month, in a “Worst case estimate”. In addition, since February, Tehran has blocked the access of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to its facilities.
While the Americans raise the possibility of proposing a so-called interim nuclear agreement, the Iranian press, today mainly dominated by harsh voices, firmly rejects this scenario. November 20, the ultraconservative daily Kayhan called the idea of an interim agreement “Deception” and of ” trap “, welcoming the expansion of the nuclear program which, according to this publication, is bearing fruit.
On the Internet, a mirror of public opinion in Iran in the absence of independent polls, the resumption of nuclear negotiations does not seem to arouse much interest among the population. On Friday, as farmers and residents of central Isfahan province sought to continue their peaceful protest against the leadership’s mismanagement of water, protesters were shot and wounded. Many videos posted on social networks show men and women, sometimes very old, covered in blood. We also see the police, in civilian clothes or in uniform, batons and firearms in hand, hitting or shooting at the crowd. In the region, Internet access has been severely disrupted, a measure the Iranian regime applies in the event of a dispute. It is not known whether the repression in Isfahan caused any casualties. One thing is however certain: today, the Iranian regime does not seem ready to show flexibility, neither inside nor outside.