According to what experts foresee in their interview with “Sky News Arabia”, these options may range from tightening the screws on the export of Iranian oil, passing through the return of the arms embargo, to subjecting nuclear facilities to an investigation by the UN Security Council.
“Based on Iran’s position on the latest round of negotiations, President Joe Biden has instructed the national security team to be prepared for the failure of diplomacy and to consider other options,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
“This work is underway, and there are also consultations in this regard with many partners around the world,” Psaki said, according to the Reuters news agency.
At the same time, a joint Gulf-British statement stressed that Tehran’s continued nuclear escalation undermines regional and international security, and continued: “The Vienna negotiations are the last chance to revive the nuclear agreement.”
Negotiations of the agreement on lifting sanctions on Iran in return for a commitment that its nuclear program be for peaceful purposes froze, amid mutual accusations between the parties of intransigence in the conditions presented.
step by step plan
As for the plans that Washington is preparing if the negotiations fail, the former international observer to the United Nations, Kamal Al-Zogoul, believes that it will be a gradual escalation plan, starting with sanctions against the export of Iranian oil – whose revenues are used to finance nuclear projects – especially since Iran is a rentier state, and it depends on Export of oil and petrochemicals.
Al-Zogoul added that the plan may include sanctions against figures in the Revolutionary Guards and its agents in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, and for exporting and selling weapons, then freezing assets abroad, activating naval patrols and inspections at strategic points in the Bay of Bengal, Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Suez Canal.
Finally, the matter may escalate to revitalize the military operations in Al-Bukamal, Syria, against Tehran’s militias there, according to Al-Zogoul.
The former international observer expects that the “shadow war” will be active between Israel and Iran in Syria and Lebanon, and that “there is a great possibility to besiege the Houthis in Yemen, but this option depends on the Houthis slipping under Iranian orders in border bombing operations.”
Security Council investigation
According to the Iranian political analyst, Mohem Sarkhos, the Israeli move is motivated by exciting speculations about the existence of military nuclear activity at three stations, namely, Turkuazabad, Faramin and Marivan, which are part of what is known as the secret Iranian nuclear program.
Sarkhos adds that the US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, on Wednesday, and they agreed on the need to formulate a common security vision to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb, especially with its doubling of the enrichment process to about 60 percent and thinking about increasing it to about 90 percent, As well as the use of advanced centrifuges, and the production of metal sheets of uranium, which can produce an atomic bomb.
Therefore, the same source suggests another step for pressure, which is to subject Iran’s nuclear activities to the investigation of the UN Security Council.
For its part, Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it will not be able to view the content of surveillance cameras for its nuclear program until after the lifting of sanctions.
Iran is also maneuvering with missiles, as the Revolutionary Guards launched ballistic and cruise missiles, on Tuesday, during war games in the Gulf, declaring that its missiles have a range of 2,000 kilometers and are capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the region.
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