By majid Rafee

Will Democrats’ return revive JCPOA?

August 14, 2019 - 16:17

TEHRAN - We Iranians have a proverb, 'the yellow dog is the brother of the Jackal', that implies "none of these two people is better than the other, both of them are bad and vicious". Its etymology is as follows:

Once there was a mischievous jackal living in a village, he annoyed people so much that they expelled him from there. But he returned again in disguise and as a yellow dog. Since people had a good opinion about dogs, they accepted him and called him "the Jackal's brother" (because he looked like the jackal). This time the jackal continued his vicious actions in secret so the people couldn't find out the truth; but in a rainy day, the yellow color was washed off the jackal's body and the people found out the truth, so they said "Oh, look! The yellow dog or 'the jackal's brother' is the jackal himself!”

In this proverb, "the yellow dog" is the symbol for a bad person, and "the jackal" is the symbol for a worse one. Although one of them seems better than the other, in fact both of them are horrible and act vicious. So to the people, there is no difference between them in practice.

The difference between the ,? Democratic and Republican parties for Iranian people is like the difference between the yellow dog and the jackal as mentioned in the Iranian proverb above. Both parties are the same against Iranian government and nation. In other words, both parties have repeatedly shown their hostility towards the Iranian government and nation as soon as they have come to power.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal which includes various clauses and a number of legal attachments for both sides was a good benchmark for testing the honesty of the international community, especially the Americans to verify Iran's nuclear behavior.

What has happened so far is that the Iranian side has adhered and implemented JCPOA provisions while the other sides have not fulfilled their commitments under the JCPOA. To understand that how honest the other signatories to the deal have been, we can refer to change of policy in the US after Republicans took office, Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the deal  as well as delay of European to implement the JCPOA.

Here is a question. Will the dimmed JCPOA be revived If Trump's term comes to end and the Democrats return to the White House?

The answer is NO. Just look at the debates going on among the Democratic candidates. They believe in returning to JCPOA with new terms and conditions including expanding of it to more issues like human rights, missile technology, and ultimately putting more pressure on Iran. All these precondition are not acceptable to Iran at all.

In short, there is not enough evidence showing that the JCPOA could be revived with Democrats’ return.

Remarks of some democrats such as Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the hawkish Foundation for the Defense of Democracies indicate that return of the White House to the JCPOA without preconditions is impossible. He has recently called on building a strong wall of additional sanctions against Iran so that the wall remain firm even after Trump.

Some of these kinds of statements and request have already come true by imposing new sanctions under under the pretext of issues such as terrorism, human rights and missile program. The new sanctions on Iran’s iron, steel, aluminum and copper sectors under the pretext of human rights are example of a new American approach.

Considering all these facts, does anybody still believe that the Democrats’ return may revive the JCPOA?

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