An Iranian defector and former top Shariah lawyer now living in Texas says the Iranian regime is attempting to back the Obama administration into a diplomatic corner: Either accept a nuclear deal that is so one-sided that it will allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon within the next couple of years, or walk away from the bargaining table with no deal.
Daniel Akbari is a former criminal defense lawyer who argued death-penalty cases before the Iranian Supreme Court. He is intimately familiar with the way the regime's supreme religious leaders think.
Akbari defected to the U.S. almost seven years ago after coming here on a student visa.
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"I became Christian and that made living in Iran worse," said Akbari, who has appeared in radio interviews with conservative talkers Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. He has also authored two books about jihad and Shariah law. His latest is "Honor Killing: A Professional's Guide to Sexual Relations and Ghayra Violence from the Islamic Sources."
He spoke with WND in an hour-long exclusive interview.
Akbari said the Iranian regime wants to prove to its people that it at least tried to negotiate a deal that would allow for the relaxation of economic sanctions, which combined with lower oil prices have had a crippling effect. If the sanctions continue, Akbari said he sees the regime collapsing within two to three years.
"They don’t want an uprising. They want to have their people behind their backs. So their message is, 'Yes, we care about your economy, but that's not in our hands,'" Akbari told WND in near-perfect English. "They will say, 'You should not trust the U.S. or the West, they are playing with us, so if you are forcing us to stop enriching uranium you are wrong because you are not going to get anything in return from the West.'"
Akbari said he doesn't expect a deal to be signed.
"It’s a psychological chess game, that's why we should not expect any deal. No such thing, because they are not going to stop dreaming about the bomb," Akbari said. "That is the only way the regime can survive. They want to have the bomb because they know their policies are harsh enough and crazy enough that everyone is against them. So they have to pursue a strong military and the nuclear bomb."
Possessing a nuclear arsenal will give Iran leverage among its own people as well as enemies beyond its borders, namely Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Akbari said the majority of Iranians support the regime's nuclear program but only if they can have a good economy free of sanctions.
"If Kerry comes up with something, the deal will be something like, 'OK, they can do whatever they want.' The U.S. side will have to give them lots of privileges or advantages. And we do have a Congress that is not going to accept whatever deal John Kerry has reached, so at the end of the day I don’t think there is going to be any valid agreement because the Iranian regime is going to reject any strong deal," Akbari said.
Akbari said Iran's goal is to come out of the negotiations with a path to continue enriching uranium and to avoid sending the enriched uranium to any outside country, such as Russia.
"So that's why they may come up with something general like, 'Let's get back together six months from now or a year from now.'"
He said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wants the U.S. Congress to ratify whatever deal is reached.
He said France is more concerned about Israel's interests than the Obama administration, and the U.K. is most concerned about Saudi Arabia's interests.
"That's why we are not going to have any deal," he said. "Kerry is the only one who really wants the deal."
Akbari said the Obama administration believes it can outmaneuver the Iranians and win a deal that will further Obama's legacy as a man of peace.
"They want to have a legacy. They are playing with the Iranian regime and think they can outplay them with propaganda, but the master of propaganda is the Iranian regime," he said.
Hamid Molana, the Ayatollah Khamenei's top media adviser, is the former head of the department of communication at George Washington University.
"So he knows this is all a joke," Akbari said. "The U.S. is trying to put pressure on them, and they (the Iranians) don't do anything under pressure. They just play with the West, but Kerry doesn’t understand this. He sees them as genuine and doesn't realize this team he is negotiating with, they are nobody. Each night they have to get their marching orders from the supreme leader, and the supreme leader says, 'This is my red line, and you cannot cross it.'"
'Heads you lose, tails you also lose'
That red line is to retain the ability to continue enriching uranium, Akbari said.
"They want the bomb because, without the bomb, this regime is shaky and is not going to remain forever," he said. "If they have the bomb, they can threaten both parts. Even internal enemies they can threaten and say, 'If you rise up, we don’t care because we can bomb you.' They can do the same on the outside with Israel, and that's why they won’t abandon it."
"That's why for 30 years, their people suffer," he added. "They don’t care about people. They want something that benefits the military and the regime itself. Without a nuclear bomb, the regime is probably not going to last more than two or three years."
Akbari said that while the Iranian population has become more Western over the years, there are still plenty of people with ISIS-like Islamic values living in southeast Iran, and there are also the Kurdish people in the West who have break-away ambitions.
"So if the regime does not have the power to really firmly establish itself, the Saudis can spend a lot of money to exploit that, encouraging them to rise up against the Iranian regime," he said. "But Saudi Arabia does not want to challenge Iran militarily, so they can say to the Saudis, 'If you mess with us, we can bomb you and even your master, the U.S., cannot stop us because we have the bomb. So that bomb is crucial for them to be able to stop external threats and also internal threats.
"That's why it's so complicated, and I don’t see any deal. The only way there will be a deal is if the U.S. says just go ahead and do it. Go ahead and keep enriching the uranium."
That would be a very bad deal for Iran's neighbors in the Middle East and even Europe. Once the sanctions are lifted, turning the clock back to reinstate them at the United Nations would be extremely difficult. Russia would work against any proposal to restart sanctions.
If a bad deal is struck, it will no doubt be sold as a good deal, to make it easier to swallow.
"Politicians can play with words and make it seem like a good deal," Akbari said. "Through the force of propaganda, they will push that agreement to the world community as something good. They will put some lipstick on that bad deal and sell it as a good deal. And those who say it's a bad deal, they are crazy."
Nothing is worth fighting for
Iran has the upper hand because it knows the American public is war weary after so many years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Akbari believes the majority of Americans are not aware of the true nature of Islam and how its values are antithetical to Judeo-Christian society.
The "new attitudes" prevalent in the West are built on multi-culturalism and coexistence, he said.
"We will be the losers because the majority of Americans don't want to fight. If you are liberal, the number one principle is nothing is worth dying for, nothing is worth fighting for," Akbari said. "When it comes to life, nothing is that important. So as far as we can avoid any war, that deal is good."
And if the Iranians are unable to strike a sweetheart deal that allows them to cruise toward a nuclear program, then the fallback option is to force the U.S. to walk out and blame the U.S. for the collapse of talks.
"Iranians are trying to communicate this message: 'We are genuine, and we don’t care if you come and check our program. We have nothing to hide. Then to have the West leave the table," he said. "Whoever leaves the table first is going to be blamed for war. They want to say we were genuine, and we were ready to reach a deal but you, America, had to be greedy."
That will give the regime the cover it needs domestically to continue enriching while its economy remains in austerity mode.
"The regime is under pressure because of the economy, so it is going to communicate this message that we have to go through this process. We will have to be ready for more sanctions but we can make it," he said. "The regime can provide basic needs by dealing with Russia and other countries to feed the people but not meet their expectations."
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