US officials are continuing to express demands that Iran get rid of its
nuclear weapons program. This is a long-standing demand, and Iran is
well aware of it. The problem is Iran doesn’t have such a program, and
has repeatedly disavowed ever having a program in the future.
They might as well not bother to have spent the last 16 years disavowing
arms, with hawkish John Bolton clearly acting like it never happened,
saying the US is determined to “increase the pressure on the Iranian regime until it abandons its nuclear weapons program.”
Iran’s Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami reiterated on Monday that Iran will
never pursue a nuclear weapon, and that the whole world knows that. The
general asked why the world keeps sanctions Iran over the nuclear issue
when it clearly isn’t a real issue.
US officials have been reiterating the idea of an Iranian “nuclear
threat” so long, and against all reason, that at this point the facts
don’t matter for most US officials. Policy is to escalate sanctions, and
the escalation has become an end unto itself.
Vice President Mike Pence says the US doesn’t want a war with Iran,
but is determined to protect its interests. He too presented the idea
that Iran would never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
This puts Iran in a tough position with the US, because it plainly
doesn’t matter what Iran promises, what Iran does, or what Iranian
leaders declare as religiously forbidden. The US will always lead with
the same nonsensical demand, and US officials will always feel justified
with threatening Iran over plain lies.
The Iranian Government should tell Trump that his personal property will become lawful targets if the US wages war on Iran!
I’d go further. Through diplomatic channels I’d send a communique to every warmonger from Bolton down, listing the places each frequent the most…main home, second home, lakeside cabin, moored yacht, fave hotel suite etc…and tell them start war against us and our missiles and hit-squads will target you – and we’ll get some of you for sure.
Take war to their front door. Don’t let them dodge this one.
I love the passive tone, ‘we will not back down’ as if Iran is stepping up and slapping the ever peaceful U.S. of A. Good Lord, we always have to portray ourselves the victim. Can’t we at least own what we are doing? Nah … only adults do that.
What right do these …. have taking us into a war?
They should all the strung up to a tree the moment the first bomb hits
And locked in a dungeon until the sanctions are lifted.
I agree 100%, starting with Bonkers Bolton and Pompous Pompeo.
that should be the easiest thing for Iran to do .halt the existence of a non exiting nuclear program . So why not scrap the centefuges and lift the sanctions .
Centrifuges are also used for enriching uranium for peaceful power-reactor fuel which Iran was allowed under the JCPOA and NPT. And the amount of oil under us is finite before you ask why Iran should be trying to produce nuclear power while sitting on all those reserves.
Doesn’t fit the fake narrative
So, every time the mustache, the pomposity, or the Trump make statements referring to the Iranian nuclear program, the “reporters” in the audience should immediately ask them about the 2007 and 2011 National Intelligence Estimates on the subject that said that Iran had not been working on a nuke since 2003. Do our esteemed MSM reporters do this?
They do, get the same response everytime…”Israeli intelligence sources”
Really? I don’t “listen” to much news but I would think that question is stored away with any other questions that might be an embarrassment to answer by our government. But your take on their response would be accurate, in my opinion.
Neither do I, but that is the only answer I’ve ever heard, unless its sourced as “Iranian freedom rebels”, meaning, Chalabi in Iran. Actually, the trump administration never puts itself in a position to have to establish any facts on the ground, anywhere.
I don’t listen to fake news either; I get my sources from the Internet, which is much more reliable.
Ironically Mossad also concluded no bomb programme.
And 2003 was iffy.
“Bolton & Netanyahu killed Paris agreement between E3 & Iran in ’05 by insisting on zero enrichment,”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/07/09/600531/Iran-nuclear-Bolton-Netanyahu-Trump-United-States-Zarif
Iran could purchase the small amount of enriched uranium they might need from Russia much cheaper they can do it themselves . Why not ?every body else does .
Why not everybody else buys their enriched uranium from Russia .
Except for Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, the Netherlands, North Korea, Pakistan, the US, and the UK, and those who buy it from one of those countries, you mean.
Do you know the percent of their Uranium is mined and enriched themselves compared to how much is purchased from Russia . Russia is the biggest and lowest cost producer . It is good that nuclear wars are thought to be short lived . because every body is going to have to purchase their uranium from Russia . I suspect Russia might become a unreliable supplier if they thought the bombs might be for them . But of course the love of money has always accomplished everything so far
No, Iran is not going to haul off and attack neo-nazi Israel, either in Syria or Israel proper. It’s government in Tehran is many things, but stupid is not one of them.
What Israel is attempting to do is create a false flag, to be blamed on Iran, as the justification for attacking it, and bringing it the US in on its side, militarily.
And unfortunately, Netanyahu’s ventrilloquist dummy, here in the US, AKA President Trump, has just made it very painfully clear this morning, that the US’s withdrawal from the P5+1, and the sanctions which will ensue, are the US government’s prelude to a war against Iran.
Just because something isn’t the most ham-fistedly, pig-headedly stupid thing the US government could do, is no guarantee that it will not do it, and President Trump’s speech about the US withdrawing from the P5+1 deal, is no exception to this very dark reality. He is making claims about Iran’s actions and capacities which bear absolutely no basis in reality.
The IAEA, which is staffed by amazinglingly bright people, has looked at the suspected facility, and said that there is no “there” there. And if that is what the IAEA is telling the world, I would very much tend to believe them. What Netanyahu and Trump are doing is tantamount to calling members of the IAEA, in their inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, idiots and liers, and members of this organization is neither.
With a potential corruption indictment hanging over his head, Netanyahu is going to want to jump start this war as quickly as possible, which is most probably the reason President Trump made the decert announcement today, rather than wait until this coming Saturday, 12 May, which was the actual deadline.
Look for this war to generate the revival of the draft in this country, and this time, the US military will be coming after both our young women, as well as our young men. And here is how I see the forces lining up; China, Russia, and Iran on one side, with the US; NATO, Saudi Arabia, and Israel on the other. There is no way that this will be allowed to stay regional; my sense is, it will go global in a heartbeat.
A global war is th only kind of war Russia has prepared to fight with the small military budget they have
Can someone explain to me why the Euros are following the US on Iran sanctions ? What can the US do if they didnt?
The Trump era has stripped any pretence that the Euros are independent of the Empire. That’s why Euro leaders hate him. The truth is humiliatiing.
It seems self evident that no nation, or individual is “independent”. Trade is an obvious advantage, otherwise sanctions wouldn’t be effective at all. So, what does the US have that Europe needs badly enough to abandon their agreements ?
“Policy is to escalate sanctions, and
the escalation has become an end unto itself.”
This of course is the fundamental mistake everyone makes.
It’s a direct result of cognitive dissonance – not to mention the unwritten rule that one never calls out anyone in power for being corrupt and with bad intentions to start with. Or at least one never says that *most* of the government is corrupt – just a few “bad apples” – like Bolton.
But the reality is that the US lives on war.
So the policy is *not* to escalate sanctions “as an end in itself.” That’s a wishy-washy statement at best.
What the US – or more precisely the neocons, most of the Congress, and probably Trump himself – although he might not admit it, even to himself – in other words, everyone in charge of the US government – wants is war with Iran.
And they want that war *regardless* of the consequences to the Iranian people, to the US electorate, to the US troops who will fight it, to the economy of the world, and the impact on the rest of the world.
In fact, for the neocons at least, and quite probably everyone else referenced above as being in charge, the “impact on the world” is precisely what they want. Because it makes them feel that they are the “rulers of the world.”
And they are. Because no one other than *other* people in nuclear armed countries can make them stop doing these things.
When will the belligerent USA, which is the ONLY nation ever to have used nukes on humans, and which parks nukes in NATO countries and encourages Israel’s development of nukes without being in the NPT, give up its nukes???
The JCPOA was working, Iran threatens and attacks nobody, the USA tossed out the only agreement acceptable and John Bolton has no discernible decent features.
Vice President Mike Pence says the US doesn’t want a war with Iran, but is determined to protect its interests
Interests? Empire, oil and Israel?
Bolton is only making it necessary for Iran to reconsider that — having nuclear arms is the only way to keep people like Bolton from attacking.
Pence doesn’t want a war with AIPAC is more correct.
The albino walrus needs to spend some time at Gitmo….just saying.