small glimmers of hope for Iran & the JCPOA

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 5:50pm

‘No Room for Political Games at IAEA: Iranian President , March, 04, 2021, tasnim news english (CC)


“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani cautioned the European troika to avoid politicizing Iran’s case at the International Atomic Energy Agency as the UK, France and Germany are pushing for a resolution against Tehran in the UN nuclear agency’s Board of Governors.

“The (International Atomic Energy) Agency is not a venue for political games. Political games must be abandoned. The Agency is a place for technical work,” the Iranian president said on Thursday after inaugurating a number of projects carried out by the Interior Ministry.

Highlighting Iran’s close cooperation with the IAEA, Rouhani lashed out at the three European states for pressing on with the anti-Iranian resolution at the IAEA.

“I advise them not to do that,” the president added.

Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog have reached a good agreement, he noted, stressing that Iran’s nuclear activities are hundred percent peaceful.

Following a recent visit to Tehran by the IAEA director general, Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog issued a joint statement, declaring that Iran will stop its voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol and will deny IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear facilities beyond the Safeguards Agreement as of February 23, 2021 for three months.

According to the Iranian Parliament’s ‘Strategic Action’ on lifting sanctions and safeguarding national interests, ratified in October 2020, Tehran has halted the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol because the signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal have failed to honor their commitments.”

‘JCPOA Not Renegotiable, Rouhani Tells Macron’, March, 03, 2021, tasnim news

“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made it clear in a telephone conversation with his French counterpart that the 2015 nuclear deal would be not renegotiated by any means, stressing that the only way to revive the JCPOA is the termination of the US sanctions on Tehran.

In the phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday evening, Rouhani warned that missing the opportunity to save the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action could make the situation more difficult.

“The stepwise reduction of commitments on the part of Iran was due to the withdrawal of the United States from the deal and the inability of the three European countries to fulfil their obligations,” Rouhani said, stressing that Iran’s measures can be reversed immediately after the other parties’ fulfillment of their obligations.”

You may remember that the Biden administration had wanted to confer with allies Saudi Arabia, Israel, and others who oppose ‘the deal’  ahead of the ‘renegotiation’ language. To make matters more clear, there IS a time schedule.   Iranian hrdliners elected to Parliament recently have passed a law that forces its government to halt nuclear inspections and boost uranium enrichment if U.S. sanctions are not eased by the last week of February.  Presidential elections are scheduled for June 18, 2021.

Will an Iranian hardliner be elected?  Tick-Tock…

Glimmer #1: ‘France, UK, Germany Scrap US-Backed Anti-Iran Plan at IAEA’, March, 04, 2021, tasnimnews.com/en

“The UN nuclear watchdog said its chief Rafael Grossi would hold a news conference at 1100 GMT, according to Reuters.

It did not give a reason, but diplomats said he told the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors that the agency plans to hold technical discussions with Iran in April. […]
“According to the Iranian Parliament’s ‘Strategic Action’ on lifting sanctions and safeguarding national interests, ratified in October 2020, Tehran has halted the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol because the signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal have failed to honor their commitments.”

Glimmer #2: ‘Moscow Urges for Full Implementation of JCPOA Commitments by All Parties’, March, 05, 2021, tasmin news english


“Moscow hopes that it will soon be possible to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program in its original form, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Russkaya Mysl magazine published in the UK.

“We hope that it will be possible to reverse the trend and return the process of implementing the JCPOA to the originally agreed on framework in the immediate future. Even more so, since Tehran has repeatedly spoken in favor of its willingness to completely unfreeze all of the plan of action’s provisions that it had suspended as soon as the forfeited balance of interests is restored. For our part, we are ready to provide all kinds of assistance in reaching agreements on that score,” Lavrov stressed when asked whether it was possible to restore the Iran nuclear deal in cooperation with European countries.

“However, not everything here depends on us or the European participants in the plan of action. The Biden administration’s stance is of key significance. In our view, steps by Washington showing Tehran that the United States’ intentions to return to the JCPOA are serious would help break the impasse around Iran and its nuclear program,” the top Russian diplomat stressed.” […]

“However, Tehran has expressed its readiness to reverse the suspension of its commitments only if the US returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions without any preconditions or if the European co-signatories manage to protect business ties with Iran against Washington’s sanctions as part of their contractual obligations.”

‘FM: US Criminal Sanctions Targeting Iran’s Kids’, farsnews.ir/en, March 5, 2021 (also CC)

“Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif strongly blasted the US for imposing sanctions against his country, stressing that these inhumane sanctions have intensified sufferings of kids with no access to special medicines for incurable diseases.

Zarif made the remarks on Friday with an image of a young sick Iranian girl published on his Twitter account.

“This is a little girl who’s paid the price for cruel & inhumane choices of politicians far away. Her situation isn’t unique in Iran,” he wrote.

“Even amid COVID-19, US continues to exert Trump’s failed “maximum pressure” on Iranians. Isn’t it time to try something that may actually work?”, @JZarif added.”

Preppin' the Camel before he's gone...

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

Tags: 
empire and war crimes; Hands Off Iran!
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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 6:55pm

Anthony Blinken as the Secretary of State and the rest of the neocons in Biden's cabinet give me not much hope that the situation will head in a positve direction.

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Submitted by NYCVG on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 7:40pm

@humphrey you're wrong, too.

Rouhani and Zarif have long seemed to be the heroes of this story.

We are the reprehensible global menace.

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NYCVG

Submitted by NYCVG on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 7:43pm

@NYCVG the f-----g sanctions. As was promised, by the Obama Administration.
That's the answer.

Harris and Bibi is a sickening visual.

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NYCVG

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 10:11pm
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@NYCVG

get into that discussion, but (h/t Big Al), the short version: 'America Planned to Break “Iran Nuclear Deal” Years Before Signing It', may 5, 2018, journal NEO.org, tony cartalucci

"The so-called “Iran Nuclear Deal,” officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed on 2015 now under threat by a backtracking US – was billed at the time of its signing as a historic agreement that provided a path forward towards peace between the US and Iran.

The BBC in an October 2017 article titled, “Iran nuclear deal: Key details,” would even go as far as claiming:

The 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran and six world powers – the US, UK, Russia, France, China, and Germany – was the signature foreign policy achievement of Barack Obama’s presidency.

The initial framework lifted crippling economic sanctions on Iran in return for limitations to the country’s controversial nuclear energy programme, which international powers feared Iran would use to create a nuclear weapon.

But while the agreement has been hailed as a “signature foreign policy achievement,” it was, before even its inception – not a vehicle towards peace – but a cynical ploy to justify future war.

The United States had never intended to allow Iran to rise as a counterbalancing regional power in the Middle East or Central Asia nor escape from under the constant threat of US military intervention or the crippling sanctions it has targeted the nation with for decades."

A Conspiracy to Offer Then Sabotage an Iran Peace Deal is Stated US Policy

Far from conjecture, plans by US policymakers have been documented and are available freely to the public from among the various corporate-financier funded policy think tanks that produce US foreign and domestic policy.

Prominent among these is the Brookings Institution whose corporate-financier sponsors include arms manufacturers Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, energy giants Exxon Mobil, BP, Aramco, and Chevron, and financiers including Bank of America, Citi, and numerous advisers and trustees provided by Goldman Sachs.

In their 2009 paper, “Which Path to Persia?: Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran” (PDF), Brookings policymakers would first admit the complications of US-led military aggression against Iran (emphasis added):

..any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context—both to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it.

The paper then lays out how the US could appear to the world as a peacemaker and depict Iran’s betrayal of a “very good deal” as the pretext for an otherwise reluctant US military response (emphasis added):

The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer—one so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down. Under those circumstances, the United States (or Israel) could portray its operations as taken in sorrow, not anger, and at least some in the international community would conclude that the Iranians “brought it on themselves” by refusing a very good deal."

the rest is here; sigh x 3.

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Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 03/06/2021 - 8:36am

@wendy davis sigh.

another glimmer of hope falls into ruin.

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NYCVG

Submitted by wendy davis on Sat, 03/06/2021 - 9:56am
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@NYCVG

against iran were dealt, but the diplomatic efforts afoot may change the way the hand plays out, she say hopefully. and allow me to say to nuclear ambiguous(some guess between 70 and 200 or more warheads) zionist israel: 'fuck you' in the most polite manner i can muster.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 8:13pm
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@humphrey

because I think he’s passed that mark already. He is as bad as pompous Pompeo. (His bag of air and manners not his weight) was already and is even more in your face than Pompeo was.

But HEY! Why is Harris talking to Bibi and not Biden? She has been talking to quite a few leaders by herself which shouts out that she is acting president. You see the Biden-Harris presidency a lot. I don’t remember a Obama-Biden presidency. Does anyone?

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 8:59pm
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@snoopydawg

but i'd short-handed it in my weariness:

'No-show Joe? VP Harris continues high-level talks without Biden, speaks to Israeli PM Netanyahu, RT.com, march. 5, 2021

"That Harris, who had next to no foreign policy experience before coming to the White House, would handle these tasks instead of Biden, who has two stints in the executive branch under his belt already, as well as decades in the Senate, is puzzling. A Politico report attributes Harris’ role as the administration’s international face to her own interest in foreign affairs, and to Biden’s efforts to groom her as a likely successor, given the fact that he will be 82 years old at the end of his first term.", etc.

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Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 03/06/2021 - 8:37am

@snoopydawg

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NYCVG

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 9:10pm
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@humphrey

'glimmers of hope', tragically.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Sat, 03/06/2021 - 9:58am
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i'd meant to say at the bottom that this post wasn't ready for Prime Time, but then...i'd forgotten why, geezerette that i do be. but AL monitor has a new one past an earlier one, close to: 'Bibi declines to be part of approving the JCPOA, no matter what'.

couple this earlier Tweet of FM javad zarif's with the next report, and me worry?

Gantz informs Biden administration of updated Israeli plans to strike Iran;
Israel's defense minster joins other officials in subtle warning to Washington over Iran nuclear talks, Al monitor, march 5, 2021

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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 9:51pm

When she is talking virtually with Bibi?

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Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 10:14pm
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@humphrey

all know how adamant their admin. is about covid PPEs, no matter that they're advocating 'opening up schools, safely and effectively'...or close to that. and 'unlike Trump, we respect science'.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 10:28pm
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no song i can imagine will do, so i'll again use this quote from edward said:

‘Every single empire, in its official discourse, has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort.’

good night, all, and good luck to all of us as this waning loose-cannon Empire struggles to keep its total hegemony.

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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 10:51pm

https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/joe-biden-extend...

US President Joe Biden on Friday extended for another year the national emergency declared with respect to Iran in the year 1995, the White House announced.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden said, "I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12957 with respect to Iran and to maintain in force comprehensive sanctions against Iran to respond to this threat."

He further said that the decision has been taken as the actions and policies of the Government of Iran continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the US.

According to Sputnik, he also accused Iran of proliferating and developing "missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities," maintaining "network and campaign of regional aggression," supporting "terrorist groups and... malign activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Sat, 03/06/2021 - 8:09am
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@humphrey

He further said that the decision has been taken as the actions and policies of the Government of Iran continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the US.

SoS pompeo on twitter: 'Send us your stories of oppression and abuse at the hands of the Iranian Regime!'

of course they're developing asymmetrical weapons and systems: to defend themselves from Israel and the US. and of course the IIRG is a 'terr'ist organization'!

trump/pompeo's orders of the assassination of IIRG qassem solemani and allies at the baghdad airport: amerika is still waiting for iran's reprisal

interesting site, humphrey; new to me.

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