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SPEAKING FREELY Iran poised on a slippery nuclear slope By Ismael Hossein-zadeh

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

Soon after the Iran nuclear talks were extended for seven months beyond the November 22, 2014, deadline, President Hassan Rouhani sought to portray the inconclusive negotiations as a diplomatic victory for Iran and an indication that his team of negotiators had "stood their ground" in the face of excessive demands by the United States and its allies.

In reality, the extension meant that Iranian negotiators had failed

to achieve anything of substance (in terms of sanctions relief) in exchange for the significant unilateral concessions they had made a year earlier. To put it differently, it meant that the US and its allies refused to honor what they had promised Iran in return for its suspension and/or downgrading of its nuclear technology.

In the first round of negotiations on November 24, 2013, Iran agreed to significant concessions: to limit its enrichment of uranium from the level of 20% purity to below 5%; to render its existing stockpile of 20% fuel as unusable for further enrichment; to leave its heavy-water reactor in Arak unactivated; not to use its more advanced IR-M2 centrifuges for enrichment; and to allow extensive inspections of its nuclear industry/facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Negotiators had therefore agreed to more than freezing Iran's nuclear technology. More importantly, they had reversed and rolled back the significant scientific achievements and technological breakthroughs that had been made in recent years.

In return, the US and its allies had agreed that following the "confidence building" implementation of these commitments by Iran, economic sanctions against that country would be lifted.

A year later, and despite the fact that IAEA has consistently confirmed Iran's compliance with these commitments, major sanctions continue unabated. US Secretary of State John Kerry, at a press conference on November 22, boasted that undiminished sanctions have forced Iran to either reverse or freeze much of its nuclear program.

"Today," Kerry stated, "Iran has no 20%-enriched uranium. Zero. None. They have diluted and converted every ounce that they have ... Today, IAEA inspectors have daily access to Iran's enrichment activities and a far deeper understanding of Iran's program."

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Iran poised on a slippery nuclear slope