Political Analyst: US Needs N. Deal More than Iran

Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst and an academic at Tehran University, underscored that given the new regional order and Iran’s growing influence in the region, Washington strongly needs a nuclear agreement more than Tehran.

“Today the Americans know that they need the agreement more than Iran. The crisis in the EU and the region, the region’s collapse by Wahhabism, and the rise of China and Russia are all actually happening for Iran’s leadership and might in the region,” Marandi told FNA in Vienna, the venue of nuclear talks between Iran and the world powers, on Tuesday.

“Obama needs negotiations with Iran and these conditions strengthen Iran’s position at the negotiating table,” he added.

Marandi underlined that the redlines specified by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei are aimed at teaching the West that he firmly stands to support the Iranian nation’s rights, the Constitution and Iran’s national rights, stressing that the entire Iran are standing firm on these redlines.

Asked about the West’s insistence on inspection of Iran’s military sites, he said, “I don’t think that inspection of Iran’s military centers or questioning nuclear scientists will be raised. I think there will be an agreement on a middle way, but in a way that Iran’s redlines won’t be violated. No one in Iran will allow inspection of military facilities and interview with nuclear scientists because they have used the same method to assassinate our scientists in the past.”

Asked if the US is ready to withdraw from its stances and accept termination of the sanctions against Iran, Marandi said, “The US should accept to remove all UN Security Council and the US-imposed nuclear sanctions and this is the only way to a deal. (Because) if we retreat today, the embargoes will continue in the next generations in Iran.”

Elaborating on Iran’s insistence for the simultaneous removal of the sanctions and fulfillment of its undertakings, Marandi said, “If any agreement is made, Iran should make some changes in its Natanz and Arak (nuclear) sites which will be costly and their restructuring to their first mode will need months and even years. Therefore, if we do this and they don’t act upon their undertakings, then we will be cheated to a great extent.”
He also stressed that the only way to remove the wrench that the US congress has thrown in the way of a deal between Iran and the world powers is the concurrent implementation of the undertakings of both sides.

The remarks came as Iran and the 6 world powers are in the final phase of their last round of talks in Vienna to draft a final deal to end their over-a-decade-long nuclear standoff.