Iran: How are secret deals with Tehran justified?

In its aftermath, the nuclear deal hammered out between P5+1 and the Iranian regime continues to occupy the headlines. Iranian regime Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are busy trying to sell the deal at home and earn the consent of its domestic and foreign critics. Meanwhile, the secret deals that have been struck between the relevant parties continue to elude public opinion.

Almost a week after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOA) was declared on July 14, Valiolah Seif, the chief of Iran’s Central Bank, declared that the second cargo of Iran’s “seized gold” had entered the country.

{mosads}Seif declared that Switzerland had sent $437 million worth of gold to Iran’s Central Bank (Bank-e-Markazi).

How can such a transaction take place while no document has been signed and the agreement has not entered implementation phase? Seif makes a striking revelation by stipulating that the cargo of gold was given to the Iranian regime following an “inclusive agreement” that was reached on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations in Vienna.

It is worth remembering that in June approximately 13 tons of gold were transferred from South Africa to Iran’s Central Bank. At the time, the negotiations between the Iranian regime and P5+1 were still underway.

What is truly happening behind closed doors? Was the agreement mentioned by the Central Bank’s chief a written document or an oral settlement? Why did the top diplomats of P5+1 keep the lid no such a blatant breach of international sanctions in the middle of the nuclear negotiations?

What makes things even more interesting is that the value of the gold transacted into Iran is estimated to be approximately $500 million, yet the identity of the organization that has received the cargo from South Africa remains anonymous.

However, it is no secret to inspectors and experts that the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the “merchants of sanctions” are always busy finding new ways to circumvent international sanctions and to fill the coffers of the regime’s security and military apparatus with currency and gold.

This deal has remained so secretive that it hasn’t even entered the ledgers of the WGC, the body that tracks and records changes in gold stocks around the world.

Another issue of concern is the “roadmap” signed between Yukia Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of the Iranian regime’s Atomic Energy Organization. In an interview with a state-run television network on July 24, Reza Najafi, the Iranian regime’s representative at the IAEA, said, “The ‘Roadmap’ agreement signed between Iran and the IAEA, which was meant to solve past issues in a short and specific timespan, refers to two sets of instructions which contain issues of utterly technical and secret nature.”

This is exactly the same issue that U.S. senators asked Secretary Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to clarify – and were ignored altogether.

Justifying such a policy under the pretext of “confidential negotiations between Iran and IAEA” will do no good to the goal of achieving a “good deal,” for it is known to everyone that the mullahs ruling Iran are masters of duplicity and deceit.

Therefore, it is clear that there is more to JCPOA than the 159-page text that was published on the morrow of July 14, and there remain several side deals – some of which have not even been revealed yet – that need to be supplied to Congress in order to clarify the breadth and depth of concessions given to the Iranian regime, and help legislators better decide the fate of the deal.

Basiri is an Iranian human rights activist and supporter of democratic regime change in Iran. Follow him on Twitter: @Amir_bas