The International Atomic Energy Agency met in December 2021 to discuss the Iran nuclear agreement. Officials pictured here showing off surveillance equipment.

The Iran nuclear deal is apparently failing, despite talk of progress in the press. Experts with Foundation for Defense of Democracies as well as within the global energy industry warn that the deal is “breaking down” and that the Biden administration knows this.

Security experts and human rights activists warn that the Iran nuclear deal was flawed from the beginning, and was thus doomed to fail.

The West is boxed into a trap

The United States, as the figurehead of Western thought, is caught in the vice. Anti-Western actors, which are those individuals and parties whose agenda is to dismantle the Western-style of society, close in on all sides of the Western map. Pro-Islamist actors have engrained themselves in the U.S. Middle East interest lobbies, as well as in the traffic influx at the U.S. Southern Border, and Canadian society. 

The gaps in public knowledge exasperate these threats. Civilian life in the Americas is threatened by agents with an extreme disdain for Western culture, political ideology, and lifestyle. Yet, many of the citizens of the Americas are kept in the dark regarding these agendas.

This can be seen clearly in the way the American media has reported the ongoing Iran nuclear deal talks in Vienna. Valdai Discussion Club writes that Berlin is looking to the United States and Moscow to carry the nuclear nonproliferation policy discussed in Vienna forward. The world order now hangs in the balance of how U.S. policy negotiates with the hostile Iranian regime. 

Holes in the story of the Iran nuclear deal 

American Pigeon continues to report the issues of anti-Western political ideology. In recent news, anti-Western rhetoric puts a severe burden of importance on the Iran nuclear deal.

Yet, human rights activists and submissions to the historical record leading up to December’s talks highlight fundamental problems with the original Iran nuclear deal. 

U.S. talks with the IRGC in Vienna passes 8th round

The eighth round of Iran nuclear talks began in Vienna, Austria last week. They resumed on Monday.

The United States has “given Iran weeks” to slow its nuclear program, writes Foreign Policy. Iran continues to argue that the west “must learn its limits” and walk back the deal. Meanwhile, U.S. allies such as Israel brace for a negative outcome, writes The Jerusalem Post.

The United States continues with the eighth round of talks with the Iranian regime. It is not yet clear what measures will be taken if the IRGC fails to negotiate. According to Reuters, the U.S. has reported that Western leaders believe the negotiations are “moving too slowly,” despite Russia and IRGC optimism. The IRGC minister believes the talks are “going the right way.” 

The perspective of those who favor the Iran deal is that it will bring “peace to the Middle East”

This, the Financial Times reports, is a “dangerous phase” of negotiation. The IRGC Ambassador to London has warned Western powers that the regime “will not accept threats.” The Ayatollah has taken the stance that he will “not let history be repeated” when it comes to the Iran nuclear deal. 

The Ayatollah cites the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure campaign” as justification for a more hostile position toward U.S. diplomats. Some, the Financial Times says, fear that there is no resolution for the accord. 

Foreign Policy referred to these talks as a “last-ditch effort” to “save the Iran nuclear deal.” This is a deal that Iranian human rights activists and Western security experts warn was faulty from its beginning. 

In December 2021, via a White House press release, the Biden administration signaled that it would prepare for the event of diplomatic failure. Financial Times reports that the Biden administration could censor Iran in its next meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency board. It could then defer to the UN Security Council to decide what next steps to take. 

Another action, Financial Times says, would be for “snapback” sanctions to be put in place. This would be a return to the sanctions that were put in place before the Iran nuclear deal of 2015. 

From the perspective of Iranian citizens, the Iran nuclear deal was D.O.A

In the minds of Western diplomats, the Iran nuclear deal would bring safety to the Middle East. They believe that the end of the deal would reignite tensions in the Middle East. Yet, for survivors of the Ayatollah’s regime, this outlook put too much faith in the Iran deal, to begin with. Citizen activists also believe that the deal was a sham. 

Why human rights activists have no hope for the Iran deal 

Iranian civil rights activists argue that America is wasting its time negotiating with the IRGC regime. These citizens believe the IRGC is an “outlaw” regime and an illegal institution that overthrew the previous Iranian government without a proper dissolution of it. 

Iranian human rights activists speak out against Islamic Republic lobbyism 

Iranian journalist and human rights activist Shabnam Assadollahi warns in repeated interviews with the Canadian press how the IRGC lobbyist works. On her blog, Assadollahi writes that the Islamic Republic uses its foreign lobby to recruit Western-born Muslims to extreme political ideology. 

“An incredible, unbelievable fact is that the (Iran’s) cultural consulates working abroad are directly supervised by delegates from Khamenei’s office, and are so costly, maladaptive and inconsistent with diplomatic affairs, which in many cases has led to dissatisfaction with ambassadors and diplomats,” wrote Assadollahi, in a blog article published on November 4, 2018.

Assadollahi has first-hand knowledge of the regime’s brutality, after surviving imprisonment in the IRGC’s Evin prison during the early days of Khomeini’s regime. She was 16-years-old at the time. As a Canadian citizen, she protested against a cultural attaché Islamic Republic embassy in Ottawa that was recruiting young Iranian Canadian citizens with Islamic ideology, under the guise of culture and Persian language classes. 

Assadollahi echoes the views of many Iranians who believe there is no reformation for the Supreme Leader’s regime. In her recollections, Assadollahi recalls the extreme cruelty of the IRGC leaders. In Evin prison, she witnessed extreme acts of torture. Assadollahi also recalls that children as young as 12-years-old faced the firing squad for public dissent. In her writings, Assadollahi notes with confidence that these foreign lobbies in Canada have a presence in the United States and Central-South America as well. 

The IRGC fights for its survival. Western security experts warn that the IRGC is soon to collapse internally. As it is scattered abroad in such an immersive manner, the results of a sudden IRGC economic and political implosion are anticipated to have a world rippling impact.

Experts warn of IRGC collapse 

In December, American Pigeon reported that security experts warned the IRGC was nearing “imminent collapse” which allowed the Biden administration to develop a hardline policy. Imminent collapse, counterterrorism experts warn, bodes ill for world security. The IRGC will not dissolve without a compounded world economic and security risk. 

What would happen if the IRGC collapses? 

“Should the Islamic Republic of Iran collapse, scattered retaliation is a possibility and one threat should not be ignored,” said Christine Douglass-Wiliams, a Jihad Watch expert contributor, and former external advisor to Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom, a now-defunct chapter of Canada’s Foreign Affairs ministry. 

“Iran is the seat of Shia Islam and ascribes to Doomsday ideology. The Twelver branch is the largest and espouses that the last hidden Imam, the Mahdi, will appear as promised amid the apocalyptic upheaval on the battlegrounds of infidel blood being spilled,” she explained. 

Williams explained that a sudden collapse of the IRGC would likely stimulate retaliation from its many terror branches. This ripple effect would not be silent and could spread globally. 

The IRGC fits religious cult expert’s criteria list

The system Assadollahi and Douglass-Williams have described falls under the same categories of religious cults. This can be determined by comparing the IRGC’s systemic formula to the “telltale signs’ ‘ of cult formation that Rick Ross described in his public warning. Rick Ross is the former director of the Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements. The institute is more commonly known as the Cult Education Institute. 

Ross described a typical cult as “having a charismatic leader” and “exploiting its members economically, sexually, or in some other way.” Ross cites research from Harvard Public Health as the base for forming his cult criteria. The IRGC operates within the space of all of these typical qualities. 

This religious rigidity of the Islamic Republic is the reason why many Iranian civil rights activists believe the regime cannot be negotiated with and cannot be reformed. Iranian civil rights groups petition for the peaceful dissolution of the Islamic Republic as a state, so that a reformed civil government can be established.  

Extreme risk to the West being overlooked, tolerated 

Despite eyewitness warnings and reports of anticipated risk, the current American leadership and public media appear to ignore the anti-West infiltration of the IRGC. 

Tolerance and the prolonged diplomatic approach are expected to fail, as Iranian citizens warn the regime leaders will not negotiate. Meanwhile, prominent spokespersons of the IRGC have been detected influencing U.S. politics, social media, and web apps. Despite this, little has been reported in the public press. 

The case of accused foreign agent Dr. Afrasiabi 

In January 2021, the U.S. Justice Department released a statement reporting the arrest of Dr. Lotfolah Kaveh Afrasiabi, an accused foreign agent of the IRGC. Afrasiabi was an esteemed professor who was arrested and prosecuted by U.S. officials for using his status to secretly promote agendas of the IRGC’s foreign ministry to the United Nations. 

The public media did not widely report this incident. Afrasiabi sued a former UK Conservative official for publishing an op-ed in United Press International explaining that the public should be outraged by this omission of detail. Afrasiabi’s lawsuit was ultimately thrown out. 

Reports from the Justice Department state that Afrasiabi corresponded via email with the IRGC’s foreign minister, yet failed to register as a foreign agent. Afrasiabi admits to being a “part-time consultant” of the IRGC, writes Ira Stoll in an op-ed submitted to The Algemeiner, yet denies that this had “any bearing” on his NYT articles. 

Ira Stoll likewise wrote that the U.S. government “recorded 33,000 phone calls” made by Afrasiabi. Federal prosecutor Ian Richardson said in an August hearing of the case that he intended to submit all 33,000 calls to the record as evidence. In addition to the phone recordings, federal prosecutors had Internal Revenue Service records.

Afrasiabi was a former contributor for The New York Times before his arrest and not-guilty plea in February. Media outlets Fox News, Politico, and The Jerusalem Post commented on his former contributions to the NYT outlet, yet the NYT does not appear to have published a public statement on his arrest. The apparent neglect of clear public communication regarding the Afrasiabi arrest drew criticism from the Committee For Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). 

The Jerusalem Post reports that Afrasibai is a science professor that had nuclear science affiliations with the IRGC regime leadership. 

The Politico article cites an unsealed complaint in a district court of Brooklyn, New York in January 2021. The indictment describes a sum of USD 265,000 delivered to Afrasiabi from Tehran as a “salary” paid by regime leadership for his consulting. 

The indictment also alleges that Afrasiabi lobbied the United States government during the Obama administration, and influenced the earliest versions of the Iran nuclear deal. This deal, which the Trump administration withdrew from, continues to hang in the limbo of continuous negotiations with the IRGC leadership.

The media version of the Iran nuclear deal leaves out IRGC lobbyist background 

Current reports surrounding the Iran nuclear deal paint a picture of dire straits if the deal is not repaired. Yet, the media narrative neglects to add the background information regarding Afrasiabi’s affiliation with the IRGC and with pro-Iran nuclear deal lobbyists that overlap.

Anti-Western Policy Goes Overlooked 

As the IRGC regime reportedly self-destructs, the West is faced with a lack of clear public information on the Iran nuclear deal. As of December 29, 2021, U.S.-Iran nuclear talks are expected to continue. Newsweek wrote that the IRGC has warned the U.S. and Allies of bloody retaliation should the U.S. take hardline tactics against them. 

The U.S. continues to be at the risk of infiltrations from border security and foreign infiltration crisis. Meanwhile, the U.S. public media has failed to disclose information of public interest, such as foreign agents in their midst, who have operated on behalf of a primary factor of Anti-Western policy. 

Threats foreign and domestic 

The U.S. is faced with the threat of escalation abroad as the dying IRGC continues to rattle its sabers. Yet, it also faces a poisonous threat as questions loom overhead. Why do mainstream public information outlets such as The New York Times fail to transparently disclose the political affiliations of its commentators? Why does the U.S. government fail to acknowledge the lobbyism behind current U.S. diplomacy in regions where ideology is hostile to the Western way of life?