US Demands Iran Zero Enrichment While Indulging Pakistan
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- The 2015 JCPOA had Iran ship out most enriched uranium, cap enrichment levels, and accept intrusive IAEA inspections — yet Trump scrapped the deal despite Iran's verified compliance, per the article.
- The US now demands Iran abandon uranium enrichment entirely, a bar exceeding the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's guarantee of the "inalienable right" to peaceful nuclear energy, including enrichment.
- Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, and Brazil all operate active enrichment programs with enriched uranium stockpiles as non-nuclear states, undermining the rationale for Iran's zero-enrichment demand.
- Pakistan built its nuclear arsenal outside the NPT while cultivating terrorist proxies as instruments of state policy and adopted the "Islamic Republic" title in 1956, yet Washington has armed and repeatedly excused the country.
- Brahma Chellaney writes in The Hill that both Iran and Pakistan are Islamic republics, both authoritarian, and both tied to transnational terror networks — making the divergent US treatment of the two "defy logic."
Why it matters: The US insists Iran must give up enrichment entirely while Pakistan continues expanding warheads and tactical nuclear weapons with US arms. If zero enrichment isn't required to prevent proliferation — as Germany, Japan, and Brazil demonstrate — Washington's leverage against Tehran rests on a standard it doesn't apply to Islamabad.
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