In comments that may provide some insight into the Trump Administration position on Iran, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson conceded that “no one” disagreed with Iran being in compliance with the P5+1 nuclear deal. He insisted, however, that this compliance was only “technically” compliance.
This led to talk of Iran violating the “spirit” of the deal, even though they are complying with all the actual written terms of the deal. Tillerson suggested that the expectation was that the deal would “remove” Iran as a threat in the eyes of the US.
Which of course is something that Iran has literally no control over. US policy is to be hostile toward Iran, and the fact that this didn’t evaporate overnight is neither surprising, nor something that anyone could’ve thought might happen as the result of the P5+1 deal, which covered only Iran’s civilian nuclear program.
Tillerson’s comments reveal that the administration’s position is that Iran simply couldn’t comply with the “spirit” of this deal, but does reveal why officials keep mentioning the Syrian War and other things totally unmentioned in the P5+1 pact as “violations.”
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Thanks to the US, Iran has been able to achieve strategic superiority in the Middle East, to Israel’s loss, especially in Syria, and the US can’t stand for that. But they can’t do anything about it, except scream and carry on, which is bound to happen in a declining world power. I wouldn’t take it too seriously.
Agreed, but that is exactly why all of this should be taken seriously. Historically transition phases of, or a changing of the guard between world powers tend to entail a bit more than just a sudden and general retardation of the political class devoting themselves to the art of bluster and dick measuring contests in the international arena.
This whole charade is one to solidify and expand Israel’s hegemony in the region. It was Israel that got us into iraq, in which the resultant power vacuum just happened to be filled by … surprise, guess who! Before that, the U.S. was supplying arms and financing to Saddam Hussein so he could go after Iran. The whole mess in Syria is, at bottom, about Israel and keeping its hold on the Golan Heights.
The entire premise is to weaken and fragment virtually all of Israel’s neighbors, making Israel King of the Hill. For background on this, research the Yinon Plan and the Clean Break document.
“Technically”?? What an opaque term.
For the first time in our history we have a Secretary of State who is a spiritualist. Perhaps our president is one too.
Well d’uh. In a legal agreement — especially one that went through such a tortuous process as this, fighting over semi-colons and commas — TECHNICALLY is what it’s all about. Double d’uh.
The US government has a history of not sticking to any agreement when it doesn’t suit them, they can’t even stick “Technically” or “Spiritually” to the original US Constitution.
yeah just ask the native americans.
The “spirit” of the deal means that Iran is supposed to completely disarm and do a voluntary regime change. And we get to pick the new regime. So what’s the problem Iran?
It does not matter to the neocons if Iran is complying with the JCPOA or not. They want war with Iran no matter what.
This talk of technical compliance makes me feel spiritually violated.
then stop following netanyahus paranoid claims about iran. thats simple enough.