Iran Says “Weak” U.S. is “Begging” for a Nuclear Deal
Top IRGC officer says Americans ‘plead’ with Iran in talks, and that the US is negotiating from a position of weakness.
A senior Iranian military officer claims that U.S. officials have been “begging us” to sign a nuclear deal during negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program, according to recent comments made to the Iranian state-controlled media.
Mohammad Reza Naghdi, the commander of the Basij, a paramilitary group operating under the wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), recently claimed that the “Americans are begging us for a deal on the negotiation table,” according to comments published in Persian and independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon.
Naghdi added that American officials routinely “plead” with Iran in talks, and that the United States is negotiating from a position of weakness.
The Free Beacon noted that the Iranian quotes from Naghdi follow earlier reports claiming that Iran’s leading negotiator “frequently shouts” at U.S. officials.
Naghdi’s remarks complement new reports that the United States is ceding ground to Iran in talks and will now allow it to “keep much of its uranium-enriching technology,” according to the Associated Press.
Iran, the AP reported, “refuses to meet U.S.-led demands for deep cuts in the number of centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium, a process that can create material for anything from chemotherapy to the core of an atomic bomb.”
“Iran feels the (US) administration needs the deal, and this belief is supported by the way the administration is acting,” Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iranian dissident and associate fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told the Free Beacon.
America’s “hostility toward its traditional allies in the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia, is at its historical peak and the Obama administration either supports Iran to expand its influence in the region or at least does not oppose it at all,” Ghasseminejad explained. “Iran feels as long as the negotiation is going on, it has a green light to do whatever it wants in the region, so why should they bother to sign a deal?”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) said a bad nuclear deal would endanger the security of the U.S. and its Middle Eastern allies.
“The Iranian terror state continues to show its true nature as it sidesteps the international sanctions regime during negotiations, and expands its threat into Iraq, Syria, and Yemen,” he said.
Kirk concluded saying “worse, the administration’s reported nuclear concessions to Ayatollah Khamenei will only keep Iran at the threshold of getting nuclear bombs. A bad nuclear deal will further empower Iran and endanger the security of America, Israel, and other allies in the Middle East.”
Due to weak leadership from the US, Iran has retained 7000 centrifuges which enable them to enrich uranium.