Tag: iran

France stands in the gap

Apparently France is the only nation which is trying to ensure that Iran actually had to make substantial actions to get any sanctions relief which is telling to the discerning reader. The implication is that the USA and posse were willing to offer sanctions relief without much actual actions from Iran just words. So in our wacky world it was France that stood up for the best interests of the world, Middle East and Israel. “French opposition was focused on a draft text agreement that laid out a short-term deal to slow down or stop elements of the Iranian nuclear programme in return for limited sanctions relief. The French complained that the text, which they said was mostly drafted by Iran and the US, had been presented as a fait accompli and they did not want to be stampeded into agreement.”

Again proving to Netanyahu, Peres and the people of Israel that despite all the words Hussein Obama does not have Israel’s or the Middle East best interests at heart.

If France holds out and an agreement is not reached that makes Hussein Obama and John Kerry look like great leaders and peace-makers of the world ad nauseam, that we will see growing pressure on Israel via two paths.  First in the Palestinian so called peace process and secondly for Israel to sign the UN nuclear proliferation’s agreement and rid itself of all nuclear weapons.

I think it is this second part which is key to Hussein Obama’s strategy to leverage/force Israel into accepting a nuclear Iran.

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Obama’s failure, Americans’ failure

The inability of the majority of voting Americans to admit they made the wrong choice roughly six years ago has led to Hussein Obama having a second term. This second term is the continuation of failed policies and unethical practices of the current administration. These matters have led to loss of respect for our government by our allies as well as the damage if not severance of relationships with other nations. In my opinion this all reflects how the society of the USA has become narcissistic. Self-centered, vain and inordinate fascination with one’s own self. The first election the majority of voting Americans allowed themselves to be swept up in hype, not substance and voting in the second election between one’s own choice before and Romney as the alternative, they simply could not allow the conservatives of our nation and all the people around the world know that they massively screwed up.

Look at the fruit of Hussein Obama.

Obamacare (what an oxymoron), Benghazi (the deaths and cover-up), IRS targeting conservative groups, Iran’s first spring four plus years ago, apology speeches to muslims, mismanagement of the military, botching Egypt and their spring and then blowing it again two years later, Syria, Libya, Iran, Russia, Israel and the unethical and unconstitutional practices of the NSA.  “Wherefore by their fruit ye shall know them.”

We see a Middle East where we once had strong allies and now they can not trust us. Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt know with high costs to their countries that the administration of Hussein Obama  is hampered by their leader. Syria, Iran and Russia know exactly what they are dealing with and how to easily out maneuver the hack. Netanyahu unfortunately placed Israel’s existence in the hands of Hussein Obama and now the little nation is backed into a corner. I would not want to be Bibi or Peres right now. I would not want to be a Jew in the nation of Israel right now.

Honestly, what would you do if you knew your neighbor plans to kill you and your family? Call the cops? And what if your cop is a pre-school child with a badge on? What then?

Shame on the majority of voting Americans for allowing this monstrosity to be a two term president.

If you voted for him, you are branches of his roots. You are complicit in all of this.

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Iran and the Long Game

As more news headlines appeared this week, one can see the signs that what is being allowed to transpire in Iran in reference to their nuclear program has all the indications of nuclear weapon technology as the desired result. To laymen the number of facilities and centrifuges that Iran wants to build and get on line does not make sense for a nation their size if the sole purpose is nuclear energy for civil purposes. The signing of a treaty stating they are against nuclear weapons means nothing. It is formality and so-called legal accountability for others to hold them to. In Iran it is a tool to allow more time to pass so centrifuges can spin and more production facilities can be built.

Russia requires a strong Iran. Russia needs a strong straw-man built in the Middle East that it can allow to “be evil” so that Russia can then gain prominence in the world as a peace and stability champion. Arming and assisting Iran also pumps much needed finances and jobs into Russia. It is a dangerous game Putin is planning and playing. Sometimes straw-men don’t behave as one planned. But for Putin, a narcissist of high degree, that scenario either does not enter his mind or he figures it will be someone else’s problem. Either way he gets what he wants. He wants to be viewed not simply as an evil self-centered man. He wants adulation and respect.

Iran – the Ayatollah and his government want a Middle East free of strong non-Muslims. I am stating it as delicately and nicely as possible. That is the simple end game. Whatever has to be done to get there is allowable, righteous and justified (also a tactic in the Jesuit and Roman Catholic playbook).

News this week from the UN’s IAEA states that Iran is one month away from producing weapons grade uranium. Later Israel reminded everyone that they will act before that reality is realized. Senators McCain and Graham wrote an article for the Washington Post sharing with readers that our government is failing in the Middle East and our interests there. The two examples they provide are the bungling of Syria and the amateur approach to Iran. Meanwhile last week it was quietly reported that the talks in Geneva with Iran were a failure. But the reader must be reminded it was not a failure for Iran for they were able to position and stall and all the while centrifuges are spinning and facilities are being designed and constructed. That is called playing the “long game”.

 

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Obama’s nuclear fumbling

The president of the USA desperately wanting to look like a foreign policy mastermind continues to play “back-channel” (on the down-low don’t you know) with Iran about the nuclear issue of their country.

Today’s Debka headline – US to Iran ahead of Geneva: Carry on enriching uranium, but cut down on advanced IR-2 centrifuges

(The headline should read: Obama to Iran ahead…)

Meanwhile leading US Senators (bipartisan even!) went to Obama with the instructions that he is not to allow Iran to continue enriching uranium. Do you plainly see what that means/implies?! So-called Congressional leadership knows too darn well what he is going to allow them to continue. “But they promised…” he says. It brings to mind the UK Prime Minister Chamberlain who was so proud he had Hitler’s promise that he (Germany) would not seek territorial gain via invasion any longer and then… KABOOM

Read the words of the journalists in Iran (see below) and then honestly come back with a reasonable rebuttal that the leadership in Iran is going to be honest and genuine ABOUT THEIR INTENTIONS AND PRACTICES .

The Week Magazine, October 4 issue has in their “How they see us” section the following story & headline:
Should Iran make up with the U.S.?

I’m not a hundred percent sure how long the link works since I am a subscriber so I am providing their content below:

It’s time for Iran to talk directly to America, said Davoud Hermidas Bavand in Etemaad (Iran). Surely it’s no accident that Presidents Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani have publicized their recent exchange of personal letters, a thaw in relations without precedent in the past three decades. Both leaders are preparing for a historic negotiation to resolve the dispute over Iran’s peaceful nuclear programs, which has crippled this country with economic sanctions. Such a negotiation is greatly desired by Iranians, who voted for Rouhani this summer in the hope that he would get the sanctions lifted and turn the economy around. While the sanctions regime has been imposed by a consortium of countries, it’s clear that “America is the behind-the-scenes force in the talks and, therefore, Iran should accept the offer of bilateral talks with America to protect its interests.”

It won’t be that simple, said Mohammad Imani inKayhan. “The problem between us and the U.S. does not stem from emotional issues to be cleared up with a handshake and a hug.” Obama’s hand “is the hand of a criminal.” It’s the same hand that, “directly or indirectly, authorized a cyberattack on Iranian nuclear installations and the killing of prominent Iranian scientists in cold blood.” It’s the hand that signed the orders to oppress the Iranian people with sanctions, causing a currency collapse and shortages of food and medicine that hurt millions of women and children. Like every American leader, Obama can’t be trusted.

Don’t worry—Rouhani isn’t that naïve, said Saleh Eskandari in Resalat. The Western press has seized on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s statement that Iran should practice “heroic flexibility” and interpreted it to mean that Iran is ready to capitulate to American demands. They should take a closer look at the origin of the phrase. It was the Prophet Mohammed who invented the tactic of heroic flexibility when he concluded the Hudaybiyya Treaty with the tribes of Mecca in 628. The Prophet compromised on the wording of that treaty, omitting references to God, and many of his followers were upset. The pact, though, brought peace for two years, and during that time Mohammed vastly increased his army, “paving the way for the conquest of Mecca” soon after. The end result, of course, was victory. In that spirit, Iran can practice heroic flexibility in negotiations today, while never forgetting that “America, the Zionist regime, and the arrogant supporters of that cancerous cell are the sentinels of oppression and injustice in the world.”

In fact, said Hossein Shariatmadari in Kayhan, the Supreme Leader himself said that heroic flexibility should be understood as the flexibility of a wrestler, who can bend, even tumble, during the course of a match. “But he does not forget who his opponent is,” or that he is engaged in combat. Each wrestling match has a winner. “Flexibility does not mean retreat.”

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What is really going on

Below is today’s column by Mr. Krauthammer’s.
Only thing added by me is emphasis. It is worth the 90 seconds it will take you to read.

The search, now 30 years old, for Iranian “moderates” goes on. Amid the enthusiasm of the latest sighting, it’s worth remembering that the highlight of the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages debacle was the secret trip to Tehran taken by Robert McFarlane, President Reagan’s former national security adviser. He brought a key-shaped cake symbolizing the new relations he was opening with the “moderates.”

We know how that ended.

Three decades later, the mirage reappears in the form of Hassan Rouhani. Strange résumé for a moderate: 35 years of unswervingly loyal service to the Islamic Republic as a close aide to Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei. Moreover, Rouhani was one of only six presidential candidates, another 678 having been disqualified by the regime as ideologically unsound. That puts him in the 99th centile for fealty.

Rouhani is Khamenei’s agent but, with a smile and style, he’s now hailed as the face of Iranian moderation. Why? Because Rouhani wants better relations with the West.

Well, what leader would not want relief from Western sanctions that have sunk Iran’s economy, devalued its currency and caused widespread hardship? The test of moderation is not what you want but what you’re willing to give. After all, sanctions were not slapped on Iran for amusement. It was to enforce multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding a halt to uranium enrichment.

Yet in his lovey-dovey Post op-ed, his U.N. speech and various interviews, Rouhani gives not an inch on uranium enrichment. Indeed, he has repeatedly denied that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons at all. Or ever has. Such a transparent falsehood — what country swimming in oil would sacrifice its economy just to produce nuclear electricity that advanced countries such as Germany are already abandoning? — is hardly the basis for a successful negotiation.

But successful negotiation is not what the mullahs are seeking. They want sanctions relief. And more than anything, they want to buy time.

It takes about 250 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in August that Iran already has 186 kilograms. That leaves the Iranians on the threshold of going nuclear. They are adding 3,000 new high-speed centrifuges. They need just a bit more talking, stalling, smiling and stringing along of a gullible West.

Rouhani is the man to do exactly that. As Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator between 2003 and 2005, he boasted in a 2004 speech to the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, “While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were installing equipment in parts of the [uranium conversion] facility in Isfahan. . . . In fact, by creating a calm environment, we were able to complete the work in Isfahan.”

Such is their contempt for us that they don’t even hide their strategy: Spin the centrifuges while spinning the West.

And when the president of the world’s sole superpower asks for a photo-op handshake with the president of a regime that, in President Obama’s own words, kills and kidnaps and terrorizes Americans, the killer-kidnapper does not even deign to accept the homage.Rouhani rebuffed him.

Who can blame Rouhani? Offer a few pleasant words in an op-ed hailing a new era of non-zero-sum foreign relations, and watch the media and the administration immediately swoon with visions of detente.

Detente is difficult with a regime whose favorite refrain, fed to frenzied mass rallies, is “Death to America.” Detente is difficult with a regime officially committed, as a matter of both national policy and religious duty, to the eradication of a U.N. member state, namely Israel. It doesn’t get more zero-sum than that.

But at least we have to talk, say the enthusiasts. As if we haven’t been talking. For a decade. Strung along in negotiations of every manner — the EU3, the P5+1, then the final, very final, last-chance 2012 negotiations held in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow at which the Iranians refused to even consider the nuclear issue, declaring the dossier closed. Plus two more useless rounds this year.

I’m for negotiations. But only if it’s to do something real, not to run out the clock as Iran goes nuclear. The administration says it wants actions, not words. Fine. Demand one simple proof of good faith: Honor the U.N. resolutions. Suspend uranium enrichment and we will talk.

At least that stops the clock. Anything else amounts to being played.

And about the Khamenei agent who charms but declares enrichment an inalienable right, who smiles but refuses to shake the president’s hand. When asked by NBC News whether the Holocaust was a myth, Rouhani replied: “I’m not a historian. I’m a politician.”

Iranian moderation in action.

And, by the way, do you know who was one of the three Iranian “moderates” the cake-bearing McFarlane dealt with at that fateful arms-for-hostage meeting in Tehran 27 years ago? Hassan Rouhani.

We never learn.

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