Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), who is in the running to be Joe Biden’s secretary of state, said on Friday that he would only support returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if it included a plan to work towards a stricter agreement.
When asked if he would support returning to the agreement, Coons told Reuters, “Not without some clear path towards addressing the missile program and support for proxies.” Coons said the US would “need a path forward for limits on their missile program and their support for proxies before I would support reentering the JCPOA. These need to happen at the same time.”
Coons’ demands are likely a non-starter for negotiations with Iran. Tehran has made it clear they have no interest in agreeing to a tougher deal until the US comes back into compliance with the deal and gives Iran sanctions relief.
Speaking to The Associated Press on Thursday, an advisor to Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated Tehran’s stance on its ballistic missiles. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will not negotiate its defensive power … with anybody under any circumstances,” Hossein Dehghan said. “Missiles are a symbol of the massive potential that is in our experts, young people and industrial centers.”
On the campaign trail, Biden said he would reenter the deal as a starting point with Iran. “I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy. If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations,” Biden wrote in an Op-Ed for CNN in September.
There are a lot of forces hard at work looking to sabotage Biden’s plans. Officials from Israel and some Gulf states have been publicly voicing their objection to the US rejoining the deal. The Trump administration is planning to sanction Iran as much as possible to make it difficult for Biden to rejoin the pact.
The original idea of the Deal was that it gave 10 years in which to work out a larger final deal on all outstanding issues.
Then Trump wasted four of those years, and poisoned the dealmaking.
So now, the US must FIRST pay the price for its bad faith by returning to Deal +, giving more than promised before. Then, and only then, can the US try to pay more for more in return. BTW, that more will now cost more than it would have before the US bad faith.
The US would do best if it gave that more at the express expense of Israel, as a show of good faith. It won’t. Of course. But then, it seems very likely that the whole thing is now spoiled and we will have a nuclear Iran.
The only solution is allowing Iran to return to the international community no strings attached.
Let Iran develop the nuclear bomb – maybe that will scare the racist, land-stealing Israelis into acting like human beings and not Nazis.
No, Israel would just nuke Tehran before MAD became an issue.
I actually do not think Israel can do that. Israel is very vulnerable to air war. It cannot handle cruise missiles nor drones. Any hint of indication of Israel rolling out nuclear assets, would risk its existence. Somehow, totality of the situation — mostly looking from defense point of view — makes me think that the whole Iranian gambit is mad. Literally.
More germane to the point , there’s a Jewish community in Tehran that would not appreciate being nuked. The longstanding diaspora project vies with the Israel project.
Scores of Jews were killed in 9/11. All that matters, are the stakes for Europe First.
Iran could not independently sustain a prolonged missile war. They have no serious air force while their missile industry was based on North Korean copies of Chinese copies of Russian tech. Russia and China would step in, but only to keep Iran from being occupied or regime-changed. Iran in the aftermath of a war with Euro-America would be little better than Syria is now.
Israel would be rebuilt the same way it was built, on begged, borrowed, and stolen Western aid. Any chaos Israel suffers in such a conflict would be a pretext for more Palestinian ethnic cleansing. Iran would be further set back as a rival to Israel’s regional dominance in the Asian century.
When asked if he would support returning to the agreement, Coons told Reuters, “Not without some clear path towards addressing the missile program and support for proxies.”
Geez, that sounds exactly like what Pompeo has been demanding. Maybe Coons has his own twelve demands like fat Mike. We conduct a yard sale of lethal weapons to Iran’s perceived enemies in the region and then we demand that they give up their means of defending themselves against those weapons. And “support for proxies” is code for Iran not being allowed to have allies. So if Iran is willing to give up their sovereignty, Coons is good.
He is a McCainiac clone who craves wars, and the death and destruction they bring. Makes him feel strong.
Coons is a McCainiac clone who craves wars.
Only an independent, sovereign country possesses nuclear weapons.
All other other countries are or soon will be subject to being a vassal state.
Sometimes … people, countries don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.
dennis hanna
The U.S. is about to lose elite sovereignty to Europe and merely become their global attack dog.
Who owns their own money and politics, are a sovereign nations. Nukes and other military artifacts are just insurance.
No surprises here. The JCPOA has always been never enough.
The only real solution is the no-strings-attached return of Iran into the world community. The sooner this happens, the better the inerests of the U.S.A..
Sooner or later, the need to do business with Iran shall burst the confines and limits of the already ongoing black market trade with Iran.
The Soviet/post-Soviet oligarch economy collapsed much the same way; eventually the black market was corrected by real market forces and returned to more or less white market dominance.
No country will willingly disarm. Definition of a proxy is rather spacious— involving anything Shia. Israel has reinforced this Sunni-Shia division, as Sunni countries are wealthy and more vulnerable, thus easier controlled. So, Shia is generically an enemy, a “proxy” of Iran regardless.
But the obsession with Iran is of US origin, ever since US lost control of it after the fall of Shah rule. Why? Because it is a short-cut into Eurasia, getting to Caspian Sea, and undoing
Eurasian continental order now managed by China and Russia. Short-cuts can prove the longest and most perilous. Tactically tempting — strategically not thought through.
There are firm assumptions out there that bombing Iran is just a matter of US decision, nothing more. Why are Saudis issuing anti-Iranian noises? One look at its condition — and it is clear it cannot sustain any air war. It almost feels like goading US into attempting anything. Why on earth would they do that? Not unless they have a no-attack deal with Iran. So, if launching attacks from land are out, sure submarines can do the job? I have no idea where is all the confidence coming from? Any threat to Caspian Sea assets — and it brings Russia and China in. Submarines and surface fleets are no longer safe. Whatever air defense Iran has is better then Saudi or Israeli. Or anything that protects our assets in Bahrain or Qatar.
With all the talk of bombing at will this or that — it is easy to forget that defense has a role to play here. Giddy with assumptions of our prowess— we fail to think defense on that chessboard. This all sounds simplistic to no end.
” I have no idea where is all the confidence coming from?”
The “confidence”, such as it is, develops from the inherently psychopathic, yes-man, power-madness inculcated by years of gloriously stroking one’s medal-bedecked, manly invincibility. It’s insanity that manifests in delusion … not confidence. For those not completely submerged in madness, it’s just clueless, habitual, transparent bluster. Big talk. Bullshit. But heavily-armed bullshit, to be sure.
“Smart” weapons equipped with multi-mode target-identification — eventually even moving or camouflaged targets — and terminal guidance to match, are changing the military equation. Missile systems so equipped, capable of pinpoint accuracy as demonstrated — ***intentionally demonstrated*** — by the strike on the Saudi oil facilities, can strip away legacy radar defenses leaving a target country blind — and forget about “missile defense”, sub-munition swarm attacks make them irrelevant — thus clearing a path for every manner of air-weapon, making every air-weapon effectively stealthy.
“Smart” is a huge force multiplier, and every country — Iran in particular — is racing to perfect them and bring them into mass production.
Israel is toast. It’s only a matter of time. And when that time comes, the US will not commit suicide coming to their defense.