Center’s Lopez in USA Today: Iran can’t be trusted on nuclear agreement

Originally published at USA Today

The Iranian regime is out of compliance. Withdraw from the weapons accord: Opposing view

The key reason that President Trump must not only not recertify the Iran nuclear deal but outright abrogate it is because Tehran is explicitly and demonstrably out of compliancewith the agreement on numerous specific counts. Further, after the Iranian regime was caught in 2002 operating a clandestine weapons programin violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — conduct underway for at least 14 years — and has never come clean about that program, it cannot be trusted to adhere to any other agreement.

In November 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency documented a long list of “possible military dimensions” related to the Iranian nuclear program that strongly suggest that Iran had an advanced nuclear weapons program and possibly nuclear warheads at that time. More recent revelations about sites like Parchin indicate that the Iranian regime continues to work on nuclear warheads and explosive charges to initiate the implosion sequence of a nuclear bomb at clandestine sites off-limits to inspectors. Critically, there is no enforcement mechanism in the nuclear deal to compel the Iranian regime to allow inspectors “anytime, anywhere” inspections.

Even after inception of the agreement in 2015, the regime has been confronted with credible information that it is operating more advanced centrifuges than permitted, exceeding limits on production of heavy water and, according to Fox News, covertly procuring nuclear and missile technology outside of approved channels: These are all material breaches of the deal.

The Iranian regime’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile “joint venture” with North Koreadates at least to the 1990s and continues currently with concerns about the sharing of expertise on warhead miniaturization and electromagnetic pulse technology.

American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal must be the first step in a complete review of the nuclear and ballistic missile threats from both Iran and North Korea.

Clare M. Lopez is the vice president for research and analysis at the Center for Security Policy.