The Liberty Daily 
(ZeroHedge)—Iran’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament has indicated that the national lawmaking body is reviewing a three-point plan to withdraw from the NPT, reports Fars news agency.
Iran has been a signatory to the NPT, or Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, going all the way back to 1970, as a non-nuclear weapon state. Iran’s parliament is now considering a “triple-urgency” bill which would order the withdrawal. This is all still at the level of political noise and signaling, for the time being at least.
“The three-point plan to withdraw from the NPT is being reviewed and will be considered the same day after it is announced; of course, the Parliament will also review its international dimension,” First Deputy Speaker Ali Nikzad said Monday.
At this point a formal pullout from the NPT remains at the level of a threatened course of action, and is not yet close to reality. According to more:
Nikzad said lawmakers “do not trust” the UN nuclear watchdog or its director general, Rafael Grossi, accusing the agency chief of carrying out what he called superficial inspections and issuing negative reports on Iran. He added that lawmakers would examine the bill while taking its “international implications” into account.
Iranian officials have also long accused the IAEA of leaking classified and sensitive information on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites to Israel. Iran has further frequently pointed out the obvious double standard – that Israel itself is armed with nukes and is not a signatory to the NPT.
This fact has long been an ‘open secret’ in Washington and among world leaders. But if the US government were to officially recognize Israel as a nuclear-armed power, it could trigger legal repercussions which would impact foreign aid to Israel.
According to the London-based and Saudi-supported outlet Iran International, “Iran’s parliament is unlikely to approve an urgent proposal to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with the measure potentially securing no more than 70 votes, a member of parliament’s National Security Committee said on Sunday.”
“Leaving the NPT during wartime would effectively mean pursuing a nuclear weapon, something Iran does not intend to do, Mohammad Mehdi Shahriari told Jamaran,” the report continues. “Withdrawal would only increase costs and further escalate the situation, he added.”
But Iranian parliament and officials merely threatening pullout from the NPT remains a significant piece of leverage, at a moment when Washington seems ‘stuck’ in the Iran conflict and Hormuz crisis, and without an exit strategy.
A year ago, prior to Trump launching Operation Epic Fury, an adopted IAEA resolution charged that was Iran in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Tehran is a formal signatory to. Yet of course, Iran is being ‘non-compliant’ at a moment it is getting routinely bombed by US forces.
