EU Pettiness on Sequencing
Posted: December 16, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 3 CommentsJust a quick post to decry the pettiness of this move by the EU, insisting on an “Iran has to go first” sequencing of the actions agreed to in the Joint Action Plan. This comes hard on the heals of this really unfortunate and stupid move by the US, adding over a dozen names of Iranian companies and individuals to the US sanctions blacklist last week. Iran responded to the US move by abruptly ending ongoing talks with the P5+1 in Vienna, and having their delegation return to Tehran. This would appear to be a message from Iran to the P5+1 about the fragility of the recent accord – one that I had hoped would be received in the West. I know that there are elements in each government involved that want to derail this diplomatic course of dispute resolution. I will hope that those elements in favor of diplomacy, will work to prevent this kind of reckless gamesmanship going forward.
Arms Control Law 
It’s very simple: if one is really afraid of an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons capability then one does whatever it takes to stop that in its tracks. The EU/US/P5+1 are not doing what it takes — they are subverting the process, which only means that they are not afraid of the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons capability.
The EU/US/P5+1 are not seriously worried, else they would be more serious:
http://nationalinterest.org/print/commentary/make-tehran-serious-offer-8120
Critics of the deal are not worried about nukes — they are worried about this:
http://nationalinterest.org/print/commentary/unsanctioned-iran-scary%E2%80%94nukes-or-not-9578
The Statement issued by the Council of the European Union on 16th December does not seem compliant with the Joint Plan of Action.Beyond any discussion on assessing whether this is a breach of said JPA,one has to wonder why the Council has taken such a line.This does not look consistent with both the text and the claimed target: rebuilding confidence.