US demands on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program ‘illegal’ and ‘humiliating’: Nuclear expert

By Alireza Kamandi

The latest US demands for the complete suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program, according to an analyst, are both 'illegal' and 'humiliating.'

In an interview with the Press TV website, Dr. Peter J. Kuznick, Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington, D.C., said enrichment for peaceful purposes is an “inalienable right” of signatory states under Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

He recalled that under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, Iran had already agreed to limit its enrichment and faithfully abided by that pact, a fact repeatedly verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through constant and invasive inspections.

“Now Iran refuses to abandon its right to enrich,” Kuznick said. “(Donald) Trump insists upon coming up with a better deal than the one (Barack) Obama negotiated. Eliminating Iranian enrichment does not look like it’s going to be part of it.”

The US has also demanded the complete dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear facilities, echoing the infamous agreement once imposed on Libya, which Tehran equates to outright “surrender.”

Kuznick attributed the hawkish US position to key figures, including Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he referred to as “the butcher of Gaza.”

He noted that Trump has openly admitted to disregarding international law, telling The New York Times that he is limited only by “his own morality and his own mind,” the former of which, Kuznick argued, does not exist.

To counter this arrogance, he recommended that Iranian leaders turn the tables by demanding the dismantlement of US and Israeli military nuclear facilities.

“The world would be better off without US nuclear weapons and with Southwest Asia as a nuclear weapons-free zone,” he told the Press TV website.

Unlike the JCPOA, which allowed Iran to retain low-enriched uranium, the US now demands the physical transfer of all enriched material to a third country. Tehran has flatly rejected this.

“The issue for the world should not be shipping all the HEU, Highly Enriched Uranium (above 20% ²³⁵U), out of Iran,” he stressed. “It should be making sure there is intensive, invasive, and unrestricted IAEA scrutiny, which Iran permitted under the JCPOA.”

He also insisted that Israel, which possesses an undeclared and clandestine nuclear arsenal, should be forced to join the NPT and submit to the same level of surveillance.

He reiterated that the only real security lies in a nuclear-free Southwest Asia.

“Trump is desperate for a face-saving way out of this stupid, illegal, unpopular, and immoral war,” Kuznick said, referring to the US-Israeli war of aggression against the Islamic Republic.

“The American people have hated this war from the beginning. As long as this goes on, there remains a real danger that the US or Israel will resort to nuclear weapons. The world prays not.”

Trump, he added, has succeeded in provoking “regime change” – but in the US over the next few months and then Israel.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir