What measures should be applied to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons?

Intense nuclear negotiations of P5+1 with Iran from November 2013 reaches its turning point in June 30. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted repeatedly that the U.S. administration would not allow the Islamic Republic to obtain a nuclear bomb. But there is a common concern about Obama’s concessions which aid Iran to build a nuclear bomb. Barack Obama is aiding Iran’s ambitions to build a nuclear bomb by making concessions to the regime in the ongoing nuclear negotiations, US Senator Dan Coats has warned. Senator Coats added the president has no coherent regional strategy when dealing with the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism.

The Iranian regime has not halted its military nuclear program, even as nuclear negotiations with the West continue. Regime’s absolute ruler, Ali Khamenei, has not yet decided to abandon the path of developing nuclear weapons. Khamenei wants to keep the regime’s nuclear infrastructure intact and to leave open the door towards acquiring a nuclear weapon by the regime. The development of a nuclear weapon is one of the three facets of the clerical regime’s survival strategy. The two others are repressing both the citizenry and the opposition, as well as regional aggression. The absence of any one of these three elements would spell the collapse of the regime’s entire strategy.

In 2014, President Obama sent a secret letter to the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei asking him to join the fight against ISIS. As indicated in Khamenei speeches, he saw Obama’s letter as a sign of the U.S. weakness and was emboldened in his suppression of the Iranian people, development of nuclear weapons and pursuit of regional hegemony. Displaying weakness in U.S. strategy towards Iran, offers all sorts of incentives to the mullahs to ignore their international obligations that undermined the process of resolving nuclear crisis.

Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State said that uranium enrichment by the Iranian regime could trigger a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East. Arab countries wants to have the same nuclear capacity that Iran has. The regime in Tehran also maintains an advanced ballistic missile program. Iran deeply engages in destabilizing behavior in different countries across the Middle East. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. It supports the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. So, countries in the region are so concerned about having a bad deal with Iran which inspires mullahs to extend their dangerous activities in the Middle East. Despite all of this clear evidence that Iran is led by a dangerous regime that cannot be trusted, U.S. negotiators focus solely on reaching a deal.

The mullahs do not want to lose power. Therefore, they would only forego the bomb if they sense that their survival is in danger, and if they feel that the risk of insisting on the nuclear project outweighs the risk of abandoning it. This balance can only be realized when the clerical regime is placed under maximum international pressure and sanctions.

Unfortunately, U.S. policy towards Iran suffers from lack offirmness. As a result, it goes from one mistake to the next. This is because The U.S. fails to realize the fundamental weakness of the Iranian regime. In my opinion U.S. must undertake several principles if it really wants to reach a comprehensive deal which guarantees worldwide peace:

1. Iranian regime should fully implement of U.N. Security Council resolutions and halt its uranium enrichment and completely stop its nuclear project.
2. Stringent monitoring and verification should be put in place to ensure that there are no covert activities and any deviation from an agreement is immediately detected. The Iranian regime must allow the United Nations weapons inspectors into the country as part of any deal on the regime’s nuclear weapons program.
3. Iran should stop developing its ballistic missiles program which is a threat not only for the Arab countries but also for the whole world.
4. Iran should stop sponsoring terrorism and meddling in other countries affairs. 
5. Iran should stop execution, torture and abuse of its own people.