Analyst: Anti-JCPOA parties to use Rushdie attack to torpedo deal

A political analyst says pro-Israel lobbies and groups that oppose Iran’s nuclear deal with the West, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would take advantage of the Friday night attack on anti-Islam blasphemous novelist Salman Rushdie and pin it on Iran to diminish the prospects of an agreement.

Author Salman Rushdie is transported to a helicopter after he was stabbed on stage before his scheduled speech at the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York on August 12, 2022.

Reza Nasri, an international lawyer and legal expert, wrote on Twitter, “Watch how the pro-Israel anti-JCPOA clique will link the attack on #SalmanRushdie to Iran, and then to the nuclear agreement. It’s very probable that recent “plots” against Alinejad, Bolton, Pompeo and now Rushdie were orchestrated by Israeli intelligence to undermine diplomacy.”

Salman Rushdie was stabbed by a man, identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey, on stage at an event in New York in the neck and abdomen before delivering a lecture.

Rushdie’s novel, the Satanic Verses, which disrespects Islam’s revered Prophet Muhammad and his household, triggered an outcry across the Muslim world, including in Iran, in the late 80s.

The developments come at the sensitive juncture when anti-JCPOA parties, especially Israel, have expressed dissatisfaction with reports of progress in talks to restore the landmark nuclear agreement and lift sanctions on Iran, after the US withdrawal in 2018.

Several rounds of negotiations have been held to iron out the last remaining differences to clinch a deal, with some informed sources sounding optimistic that white smoke would eventually appear in the Austrian capital Vienna, the venue of the talks.

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