A senior Iranian official reiterated that Iran will not permit inspections of its nuclear facilities and repeated the demand that sanctions be removed immediately.
Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi published an open letter on Sunday to the country’s team of negotiators in which he laid out specific red lines that should be maintained in a final nuclear deal. He warned them to “take good care not to be trapped” by nuclear talks with the US, Iran’s Fars News reports.
Firouzabadi repeated Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s recent order to the Iranian military and security officials to block any possible pathway that “enemies,” namely monitors from the West, could take to infiltrate “Iran’s defense and security affairs under the pretext of nuclear supervision and inspection.”
“Iranian military officials are not allowed to let the foreigners go through the country’s security-defense shield and fence,” the general stated. “Iran’s military officials are not at all allowed to stop the country’s defense development and progress on the pretext of supervision and inspection, and the country’s defense development and capabilities should not be harmed in the talks.”
“Our support for our brothers in the resistance in different places should not be undermined in the talks at all,” he added, relating to Iran’s expansionist aspirations in the region which they are implementing in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Firouzabadi commented on the United States’ “bad record in complying with its undertakings and commitments” as well as its “security, military and intelligence plots against Iran,” adding that no one can trust such a country and that Iran’s national security issues should remain safe and immune from such an opponent. He stressed that a final deal should be a comprehensive one envisioning Iran’s right to rapidly reverse its measures in case the “opposite side” refrains from holding up its end of the agreement.
The Bushehr nuclear plant. (AP/Mehr))
“Iran’s national security necessitates guaranteed irreversibility of the sanctions removal,and this is no issue for bargaining, trade or compromise,” the Iranian chief of staff asserted.
Like many other Iranian leaders, he repeated the call for the immediate lifting of all sanctions by the UN Security Council without any conditions attached.
He further warned that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should not be entitled in any agreement to visit Iran’s sensitive centers and areas for any purpose, other than the nuclear enrichment plants.
He added other provisos, such as that Iran should not be limited in transferring its nuclear know-how and technology to other countries or in selecting and choosing customers for its nuclear products.
By: United with Israel Staff
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