Iran’s proposals after in multiple rounds of nuclear talks are “non-starters,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday while meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.
“I made very clear that the proposals that we have seen from Iran thus far within the P5+1 negotiations are non-starters,” Clinton said.
“Despite three rounds of talks, Iran has yet to make a strategic decision to address the international community’s concerns and fulfill their obligations under the IAEA and the UN Security Council,” Clinton said.
Mrs. Clinton must not have been paying attention. In Moscow, the Iranians made a proposal that included agreeing to halt uranium enrichment to 20 percent, to greater access for the IAEA, and to a plan to “operationalize” the Supreme Leader’s fatwa against nuclear weapons. This would be in exchange for easing economic sanctions and international recognition for Iran’s right to have a peaceful nuclear program.
The US refusal to recognize valid and viable Iranian concessions indicates a lack of interest in true settlement and a total refusal to make reciprocal concessions.
In principle, the Western aggression against Iran and the talks themselves are illegitimate. There is a consensus in the US intelligence community that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and has demonstrated no intention to do so.
Still, the sanctions and then negotiations were imposed on Iran. But the so-called diplomacy with Iran has been “predicated on intimidation, illegal threats of military action, unilateral ‘crippling’ sanctions, sabotage, and extrajudicial killings of Iran’s brightest minds,” writes Reza Nasri at PBS Frontline’s Tehran Bureau. These postures have spoiled the chance to resolve this issue promptly and respectfully.
After the failed talks in 2009 and 2010, wherein Obama ended up rejecting the very deal he demanded the Iranians accept, as Harvard professor Stephen Walt has written, the Iranian leadership “has good grounds for viewing Obama as inherently untrustworthy.” Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar has concurred, arguing that Iran has “ample reason” to believe, “ultimately the main Western interest is in regime change.”
Since the peaceful nature of Iran’s current nuclear program is so widely accepted, the only real gripe people have is that Tehran is slightly too opaque on the issue (this, despite all declared enrichment sites being subject to international inspections and having 24-hour video surveillance). Any opaqueness Iran has demonstrated, along with its emphasis on being “nuclear capable,” is merely a defensive posture from a regime that fears US or Israeli aggression.
But there is a simple solution to this which would vastly decrease the geopolitical tensions in the region, yet is seen as out of the question by the US. If Israel, Iran’s main adversary and not a NPT signatory, agreed to dismantling its vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons and to a deal enforcing a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East – a deal Iran has repeatedly proposed – Iran’s defensive posture would probably expire, along with the whole dispute about its nuclear program.
…"ultimately the main Western interest is in regime change."
I agree. Washington is the one needing regime change.
The US and NATO claim the missiles in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria (on ships in the Black Sea) are protection against Iran. That´s a lie. Der Spiegel 49/2011.
A return to the Bonkers Bolton school of Diplomacy!
The US may eventually win a war but it will get a bloody nose in the mean time, Iran is not Iraq or Afghanistan they have the ability to strike back!
There maybe a Messianic cult in operation but it is more likely the one in Israel and the US, that is calling the shots!
Typo first line, "after in multiple rounds."
Nothing will happen with Iran until after the US election in November. Israel might attack Iran in hopes that Obama will be forced to protect them against an Iranian backlash, but I don't think so. Americans are gullible, but not gullible enough anymore to be drawn into a war to help the putrid Israeli lobby money machine in America. Not anymore. We won't be fooled again.
WOW, We've got an optimist here….. Thanks for the hope Jamal…… but to me it seems ill found.. Non the less…. I hope YOU are correct………..!!!!!
MvGuy, we might get a chance to see very quickly. Israel is blaming Iran for a bus blast in Bulgaria. They're clearly looking for an excuse to go to war. Let's see if Obama bites when Iran retaliates to an Israeli attack. Remember one thing. Iran's got the next thousand years to demolish Israel. They're not stupid and they're very clever chess players. They likely have a pretty good handle of what will get America involved or not.
Jamal,
"We won't be fooled again" C'mom man! "We?" – as the old wisecrack goes – you're saying "we", where do you get "we" – do you have a mouse in your pocket? You may not get fooled again – I, certainly hope that i will not be fooled again – most people on this web site will not be fooled again. But "We" as in "We the citizens of America" will most surely get fooled again, and again, and again….. A retiring Congressman from New York State, summed it up nicely when asked about factors involved in his leaving Congress, "The American people seem to be getting dumber".
Never underestimate the gullibility of the sheeple. They may surprise you.
Any talk of Israel being a party to the civilized world's Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or heaven forbid, allowing IAEA inspections, or actually dismantling their massive nuclear arsenal is always met with the same nonsensical reply from Washington of, "That's a non-starter".
The US would prefer to disarm itself than allow the nuclear disarmament of its master Israel. Israel has got itself a very self-sacrificing servant, one that endures humiliations and is always ready to put the master's interests above its own
Hubris like Hillarys's is going to end the America as we know it……… Sooner….. Not later…!!!!
Oddly, if she and our "leaders" really do succeed in doing that, I find myself hoping that retribution against them wil be swift and harsh.
Folks, the only way to avert another war is to (nonviolently) increase the price that Israel will have to pay if it starts another war. One simple step is for thousands (no, tens of thousands) to pledge to BOYCOTT ISRAEL IF IT STARTS A WAR WITH IRAN:
http://www.divestfromwar.org
(and please spread the word after you sign)
Let's try to PREVENT the next war, instead of just protesting it after the fact!
Israel should be boycotted anyway, for a whole host of reasons, not just Iran. It's war against Iran started some time ago – cyber war, assasinations of scientists, threats of attack, playing the Americans and Europeans like puppets in tightening sanctions, and all the while playing the victim!
has yet to make a strategic decision to address the international community’s concerns Interesting that I hear they've 'yet to make the decision' to make a bomb'…yet that's ostensibly the 'concern.' To what extent do they just turn-around their opponents' language when they blather? And how does this idiot take it that she speaks for 'the international community,' to the extent there is such a thing?
Closely have I kept an eye on our government since returning from Vietnam War, so from that perspective I draw the conclusion that, never has the US acted so openly and obviously deceitful, and still, never has the UN been so pro-US as in all these Iran sanctions.