July 14 was the anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) conclusion between Iran and the group 5+1 (the UN Security Council’s five permanent members, namely China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany). The deal was put into practice on January 16.
Expectations about how much change the deal would bring varied greatly, from opponents who thought it was a trick and would cause great loss, to proponents who vowed that the world would be more beautiful after it.
About six months after the implementation, here are some of the results of the deal.
For one thing, it helped Iran’s oil ministry greatly by first reducing project costs and second, helping boost exports. Iran has doubled its oil export from 1 mbpd. Iran’s oil industry suffered greatly under the sanctions, with many developmental projects halted or carried out with extra cost. Now foreign companies are looking forward to coming to Iran through the new oil contracts. The release of Iran’s frozen oil equipment was another achievement thanks to the nuclear deal.
A great part of Iranian assets frozen abroad were also released under the JCPOA. However, some money is still out of the reach of Iran, including $1.8 billion that was confiscated by a US court about two months ago.
There have also been many economic delegations coming to Iran and talking of long time businesses. This has been a very bright scene. However, almost all of the companies and their Iranian partners are worried that with the primary US sanctions in place, they cannot do much.
Now almost 73 percent of Iranians believe the JCPOA has not changed their economic status, a recent poll by the Canada-based Iran Poll said. The poll says it did not make sense to Iranians why banking problems remained after the implementation of the deal.
There were a number of trade agreements that were expected to be accomplished under the deal and thaw the ice in Iran-world trade ties. Iran’s purchase from Boeing was one such case. But the US Congress recently restricted the aviation company and turned Iran’s hopes into dust.
On another front, the most pessimist Iranians are saying that each minute went by under the deal is a minute lost, because Iran’s nuclear activities are now limited and the country cannot do as much nuclear research and development as it used to.
The conservatives in Iran accuse the government of naively giving way to the deal and limiting its nuclear program in return for nothing. They cite the fact that Iran’s banking relations are still limited so far after the deal.
Apart from the above general view which affects the whole Iranian community making them questioning the JCOPA’s outcomes at its anniversary, there are also two noticeable points of view regarding the most common traditional behaviors of the countries which have ever been claiming for their higher civilization rankings at the international level: A) The Human Rights Claims; B) The Environmental Friendly concepts. On the basis of very simple existing examples and regarding the point “A”, preventing the sale of new passenger aircraft and the spare parts of the old planes which have been sold to Iran during 40’s-70’s (no matter if they are American or European-made) is not only a fraudulent act over the original trade agreements, it could easily be considered as an inhuman action. Iran has to keep its aviation industry working and safe. Sufficing to the repair and maintenance of very old Boeings and Airbuses is an action that goes directly against human lives. The total number of air crashes of the Iranian passenger planes is an apparent seal of the bloody hands over sanction papers; something which is progressively continuing in both the Senate and the Congress of the US. With respect to point “B”, prohibiting the sale of vital spare parts of chemical reactors within the petrochemical complexes is another inhuman policy that is also against the West’s environmental concepts and claims. It is inhuman because many sensitive parts like feeding valves and seals which are prone to being worn-out are now old enough and so could easily be damaged and initiate a fire or an explosion. The Iranian petrochemical industries have facing such bitter incidents during the sanction period and as the result of several explosions during the past 10 years, about 100 work forces have been killed; severely injured; life-time disabled or gradually died of ensuing chronic diseases. It is against the environment because in every incident of this kind, a huge amount of pollutants will damage the earth which belongs to the whole world, not Iran alone. These are all against civilization norms, for which the innocent Iranian community and individuals are paying.
To sum up what was said, one thing can be said in conclusion under the current circumstances. While Iran has been keeping its promises under the deal, the US seems to have failed the spirit of the agreement, which was to engage in voluntary, well-intending measures to bring back Iran to the world community through encouragement rather than by the force of some written obligations. The US has been playing bad. It has not only refrained from at least sending business delegations to Iran, the shadow of its punishments for world enterprises if they conduct business with Iran has discouraged almost all of them.
Iran has and will continue its peaceful nuclear searches and researches. It is her right to do it under the NPT, which has been accepted, recognized safe, and realized as the needs of a country. If some doesn’t like it, it is OK, but they should know that 99.9 percent of the Iranians have nothing to do with this technology and so are in no way supposed to pay for it. At the 1st anniversary of the JCOPA, it seems that the world doesn’t care who pays for this dispute, and who should pay for it? Just one, or all?
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This editorial has been edited in cooperation of A.A. Saatnia & M. Sepahvand
English Version: Mehdi Sepahvand
