Iran rejected calls from French President Emmanuel Macron for new
nuclear talks with Iran that would include countries not involved in negotiating the 2015 deal, like Saudi Arabia.
“The nuclear accord is a multilateral international agreement ratified by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which is non-negotiable and parties to it are clear and unchangeable,” Saeed Khatibzadeh, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya TV reported the comments from Macron on Friday. “Negotiations with Iran will be very strict and it will be necessary to include our partners in the region in the nuclear agreement, including Saudi Arabia,” the French president said.
Macron’s call for “strict” negotiations is a sign that France does not favor a return to the 2015 deal, known as the JCPOA. But Iran has been clear that they want the original agreement they negotiated, which was violated by the US in 2018 when the Trump administration re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Iran has also rejected demands from the Biden administration to come back into compliance with the JCPOA before the US does. Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif reminded the Biden administration that it was the US who violated the deal, and so it is on the US to revive it.
While on the campaign trail, President Biden said he would return to diplomacy with Iran to revive the JCPOA. But over a week into his presidency, all of the crippling economic sanctions the Trump administration imposed on Iran are still in effect.
The approach of the West to Iran under President Biden is no different to the Trump regime – the perceived “national interests” are the same: the very reasons nations go to war. Events in the Middle East are intrinsically linked with the coming confrontation with China, where the new administration has the same objectives as the last. Gradually it is bringing these two superpowers to war – world war.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Little brother Macron wants to be heard. Biden, send him to bed now with his pacifier.
You’ll have to wake up Sleepy Joe first.
Biden is banking on EU-3 to team up with, hoping to persuade Iran to come around. But Trump’s withdrawal from JCPOA has badly tarnished our trustworthiness & has given ample leverage to the Hawks in Iran, empowering them to refuse to reengage in any negotiations with the U.S., regardless of EU-3’s insistence, arm-twisting, or empty promises (remember INSTEX)! After what Trump did, even some moderates in Iran have lost faith in the fruitfulness of any renewed or modified agreements with the U.S.; noteworthy to mention how severely the Moderates’ position in Iran’s politics has been diminished ever since. The hardliners have the upper hand & will do their best to maintain it until June to turn their presidential election result in their favor. I would do the same I were them! The only way Biden can hope for some success in this endeavor is to make a few meaningful concessions in advance, & that’s a non-starter as far as Israel & 3 Arab Gulf nations are concerned. Therefore, it is a fair assessment to assume that JCPOA is already dead, sorry to say!
The US, and now the EU3, are not “agreement-capable” … Iran should base its economy on other things.
All of this is just posturing for the masses deliberately designed to get “No” for an answer. As with Trump, Biden & Macron have their orders: Israel wants regime change.
Biden can either continue to do what Trump did, or he can stop doing what Trump did.
Those are the only two choices.
There is nothing Biden can do that would make Trump’s actions work better for Biden than they did for Trump. It is fantasy to imagine electing Biden will make what Trump did now work.
Stopping won’t cut it… He’s got to reverse it or Trump gets his de facto second term.
I think stopping is reversing.
It’s a matter of sanctions. The longer they’re in place the less chance for rapprochement. In the long term that’s good for Iran and bad for the US who will be locked out and development deals in the region. Old allies will depart weary of the bully tactics that tries to keep them on the reservation.
Meanwhile Russia and China will reap great rewards and the gain the upper hand geopolitically.
Running out the clock isn’t an option.
I agree. And the process of ending them should have been started on Day one. That and any enabling of the Yemen disaster.
It is so far turning into Trump’s second term. China, Russia, Iran. There is already an uptick in Kurdish-sponsored terrorism. Of course, it has bern attributed by Western mouthpieces as standard terrorism. But the location speaks otherwise. And it is absurd to talk of suicide bombers, as such fanaticism is rare. These explosives are timer detonated, and designed to cause civilian casualties. In Hassakah, US soonsored SDF Kurds are trying to take over and population is protesting. Kurds shot and killed protesters. This is the challenge to Syrian Government in the area. In Al-Bab, the terrorist activity is new — Turkey ousted ISS from there, and has been there since. Along with SAA, Turkey has blocked Kurdish expansion into Arab majority areas, and connect to Afrin. Another terrorist attack hit Turkish controlled Afrin.
All in all — too much of a coincidence. This will put political pressure on Damascus and Russia, as keeping good relations with Kurdish population is important. Yet, US sponsored Kurds are trying to get support from Damascus while destabilizing peace.
Biden may find out what Trump did — Turkey and Russia will not put up with resurgent Kurdish secessionism. And it is truly questionable what interests is US protecting in Syria.
Trump did the same things Obama did. Who did the same things Bush did. Who did the same things …
Underneath the theatrics, Trump was business as usual. It wasn’t his policies “the establishment” had trouble with. It was that he was trying to jump the line and buy his family’s way in to the inner club, like old Joe Kennedy or Sam Bush did only without even bothering to go through the motions of e.g. sacrificing a kid over the English Channel or almost sacrificing one over the Pacific, or even making a pretense of working his way up the ladder.
As it relates to the Middle East, it all began with Daddy Bush’s military action against Iraq, albeit after our Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, assured Iraq that we had no interest in how the dispute between Iraq and Kuwait over Kuwait’s theft of Iraqi oil, was resolved.
Sure, Obama had no intentions of fulfilling the agreement. It was a device to embark upon transformation of Iran into a Shah-style entity, entry point to Caspian region.
Trump just changed the tactics, and Biden will continue the process of regime change objectives.
But I have no idea that there is actually an exclusive club, where some are expected to pay the admission in blood. How did Clintons make it?
“How did Clintons make it?”
By climbing the ladder, winning two terms, and managing to leverage the Democratic Leadership Council into a takeover of the DNC. They didn’t just buy their way in like the Bushes or Kennedys, or like Trump tried to.
Negotiating the Iran Deal is not the same thing as walking out of it.
In another sense you are right, the Iran Deal itself is “stop Iran’s fantasy nukes” in the service of fantasy fears. Yet the one way of doing it is not the same as the other.
Also, so what if Iran had nukes. Israel does. Pakistan does. India does, and reality check — Modi is as crazy as any of them. North Korea does. None of them are destroying the world, and nor would Iran. It would just mean the US cannot attack Iran with the ease and safety to which it is accustomed to flailing about attacking all and sundry.
Neither candidate we had on offer, nor any other candidate, would actually stop the demonizing and make peace with Iran. It could be done, and they just won’t do it. They are serving something else, something other than reality.
Still, the making Iran Deal and abrogating the Iran Deal are not the same.
“stop the demonizing”
Graham: Do you still consider Iran the largest state sponsor of terrorism?
Blinken: I do.
In a nutshell. How can you even have diplomacy with someone you describe as a state sponsor of terror?
That “largest sponsor of terrorism” is the biggest piece of bs that everyone takes as the gospel inasmuch as it’s been repeated without pushback for many years now.
Bipartisan too.
With Trump gone the way of Nixon, Macron now becomes MBS’s new favorite chew-toy.
No matter your bias, Trump had it right.
Split the ME into winners and losers.
A united Arab front with the US (and Israel) against
Iranian dominance.
It changed the calculus,
it was unifying and progressive, now, it returns to a useless stalemate.
But what does an Arab front really mean?… Corrupt royals who comprise an infinitesimal fraction of the Arab people, who use mercenaries to keep their people down but can’t even beat the Yemenis despite having the best arms money can buy.
And what’s the use of Israel?.. Conspicuously absent in every war the US was engaged in, largely for their benefit. With a history of stabbing a friend in the back, they’re more of a liability than an asset.
The smart bet will be on the “losers” in the long game being played.
An Arab front means a balance of power.
While you apparently think that the former (now returned) status quo of
over 70 years of wars, conflicts and hate to ostensibly defend a pirate colony in Gaza was so much better?
Are you pro-war?
As soon as ME oil loses its relevance in world power politics (which is very soon), the Arab monarchies will be dropped like a hot potato and you’ll see endless reports on Fox and CNN about those dastardly Arabs and their support of terr’ists.
The natural powers of the ME are Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and whoever controls the Holy Land. The Arab nations are a set of fictitious states put together with oil money. USIsrael has built its base on sand … it will blow away soon.
You,
will never live long enough to see ME oil
pass into irrelevance.
Egypt, natural power, lol,
their GDP is only slightly better than Jordan!
It’s already happening, dude. What do you think this whole “pivot to Asia” is all about? The empire sees where the action is, and it ain’t the ME. They are just having a heck of a time extracting themselves from the quagmire … too many promises made and vested interests. But, for empire, in the end money is the only thing that talks. And the money is elsewhere.
As for Egypt, yeah, not much money; but note that this is the birthplace of the Arab art and science and the biggest population in the Sunni world outside SE Asia. It has people power, which matters a hell of a lot more in the long term than oil money sinking in the sands.
The pivot just recognizes the greater threat,
Egyptian art and culture (???)
that’s their source of “natural power”?
Oh, it has people,
but without financing they are just a liability.
What threat? That China’s economy is rivaling ours, like we can’t have any competition through trade/commerce.
The threat that is driving agreements between Japan, SKorea, Australia, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.
That’s not a threat to us. India is a threat to China; India is threat to Pakistan; should we now go over and help China and Pakistan.
There are no recent agreements other than some of those countries with China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrilateral_Security_Dialogue
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/8-countries-form-alliance-to-counter-china/articleshow/76224648.cms
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/asean-china-partners-set-worlds-biggest-trade-pact-74214375
Like the US with China, trade and also military preparations.
Those policies are not mutually exclusive.
Nevertheless,
tensions are more acute between the CCP and India/Australia.
Plan for the best, be prepared for the worst.
China/India have had historical tensions/issues. Australia has fueled the tension with China by going along with our sanctions warfare on China.
and here we are, trying to increase our population with unskilled, undocumented immigrants which will then decrease our power by making the government spend more on social programs for illegals, while decreasing for American citizens.
Well, except that immigrants pay more per capita in taxes and cost less per capita in “social program” expenses, not to mention committing fewer crimes, than native-born Americans.
And except that “we” aren’t “trying” any such thing.
But yeah, except for those two things, you have it exactly right.
They take our jobs away and depress wages… Better do your homework.
Did my homework a long time ago.
One of the first things I learned is that there’s no such thing as me magically owning a job. One of the other things I learned is that there’s no special magical wage I’m entitled to. And then I learned that the market handles both those things a whole lot better than letting people with guns work at the direction of JP McEvoy to try to game them.
JP McEvoy wouldn’t sell out his fellow American workers for the sake of cheap labor and low low prices.
Then JP McEvoy hates his fellow American workers and wants them to be poor and oppressed.
And Thomas L. Knapp loves the American worker to death.
Goddamn right I do. I’ve BEEN the American worker at everything from building boats to framing houses to flipping burgers to milling mustard and many other things as well. Having some lazy asshole demand that the gummint decide who gets to work where and who doesn’t because he thinks he’s magically entitled to a job and those other people aren’t is anti-worker, full stop.
I’ve BEEN the American worker
You quit or got fired?
My recollection is that I got fired from one job (gas station attendant in high school — missed one day in a year and then said “no” when I was called in with no notice and plans I couldn’t cancel). Some jobs came to natural ends, as when the framing crew I worked on finished a contract with nothing else on tap and I found different work before the boss rustled up anything new. I had ended up on the framing crew after getting caught in a mass factory layoff. That kind of thing. I’ve been self-employed for 20 years now. Some jobs I make myself, some are contracts that come and go. So I’m as much boss as worker these days.
Too bad you’re not up north, we have lots of snow that needs shoveling. Ideal opportunity for a man with that kind of resume.
Yeah, my brother in Wisconsin is bitching constantly about it. He bought a used snow blower a couple of years ago and it went out last month. He went ahead and forked over for a brand new one this time.
When I was a kid, I mowed lawns in the summer and did whatever odd jobs I could find in the winter (starting at 12, when I asked my dad for a raise in my $2 per week allowance and he cut the allowance off entirely but said I could use the mower if I took care of our lawn for free). When we had a snow, I walked all over town shoveling walks and drives. Made a lot more than $2 a week.
I don’t ever plan to live any place where snow is a problem again if I can help it. And if I can talk the wife into it, we’ll retire to some low-cost-of-living desert area where I can just rake the yard every once in a while instead of mowing it every week. Golden Valley, Arizona is about my speed.
Yes, I did all those jobs in my youth. Now my old paper route is covered by a middle aged women from Central America.
Most jobs that a kid would do back in the day are now done by the undocumented. The American worker, particularly entry level, unskilled laborers are being asked to not only compete with one another for jobs but also with a vast underclass of immigrants from all over the Third World.
“The American worker, particularly entry level, unskilled laborers are being asked to not only compete with one another for jobs but also with a vast underclass of immigrants from all over the Third World.”
Just as they always have. Special magical lines drawn on the ground drawn by politicians don’t change the nature of reality.
Funny, I don’t recall having to underbid a foreigner for my paper route.
The reality is neoliberalism and neoconservatism has driven a human tide to our shores and the working poor of our Nation is being told to just grin and bare it.
I wouldn’t count on much grinning or baring of anything other than fangs for the near future.
“Funny, I don’t recall having to underbid a foreigner for my paper route.”
Every physical thing that got that paper into your hands for distribution was done in global competition. Production of paper. Production of ink. Production of printing machinery. Production of the vehicles that delivered all of the above.
Yes, some very specific physical jobs are local in nature and can only be done in one place. And if someone had moved from another place to your place and offered to deliver papers for less than you charged, you’d have had no grounds to whine about it.
Legal ones who have the wherewithal to apply for residence and who most likely have empolyable skills.
They’re all legal per the US Constitution, which nowhere enumerates any federal power to regulate immigration (and explicitly denies that power in two places).
True – but the legal ones in the modern political definition of the term, normally have the resources to not immediately be a drain on our welfare system, being a contributor to our economy, instead of being a receiver of our generosity. Almost all nations use that barometer as a determinant as to which immigrants can reside in their nation, and who can’t.
No nation uses any such criterion. A government is not a nation.
Even our nation/government/group of bosses/tribes did until relatively recently (40 years ago). Military personnel who married foreign spouses had to certify that spouse would not become a public charge before issued an entry visa. And, other governments/nations/groups of bosses/tribes still do as it relates to permanent residency in a foreign nation, demanding a certain amount of wealth before allowing US citizens to reside there beyond the normal visitor/tourist time limitations. Of course, nations/governments/countries/groups of bosses/tribes who are incapable of (or chose not to) control the influx of unskilled illegal immigrants are a different story.
Until 1947, you didn’t even need a passport to enter or leave the United States (and didn’t need them at the Canadian or Mexican border until much later than that — I crossed the border without one in the 1980s).
Prior to 1882, Congress recognized that it has precisely zero constitutional authority to regulate immigration, and it was a very slow upward curve after that until at least the 1990s (Ronald Reagan ran on open borders, and affirmed that position in his farewell address).
US governance since the early 21st century, and not just on borders, has been part of a global authoritarian aberration, not a shining example of how things should be done. “Unskilled” foreign immigrants are the reason the US has been relatively economically successful. Whenever the US regime cracks down on them, all of us get poorer.
Wouldn’t slaves be better economically?
Better for whom?
True!
Thank you President Briben for doing the bidding of Wall St. and the silicon valley Oligarchy!
Egypt GDP in 2019 303.13 Billion
Jordan GDP in 2019 44.5 Billion
303 billion vs 44 billion is much more than slightly better.
Per capita GDP
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-richest-and-poorest-economies-in-the-middle-east.html
You did not say per capita originally …
For the precise reason that this would be against your point. after all, Egypt is the premiere Arab nation precisely because it’s the biggest Arab nation! That was the point with my “natural powers” comment to which you responded above.
Per capita shows how POOR the nation is.
The Saudi regime disagrees with you — it’s putting its oil money into solar arrays, nuclear power generation, etc. because it realizes that oil is on its way out as a major export or revenue source.
Figure 4 shows SA peak oil production at around 2030.
http://peakoilbarrel.com/world-oil-2018-2050-world-energy-annual-report-part-2/
Be that as it may, we have barely started fracking, worldwide. Solar and wind must be backed up with fossil due to the intermittent nature of it’s production. Venezuela with the largest KNOWN (likely many others) worldwide reserves sits waiting for political production conditions to improve. Electric cars require power plants to produce uninterrupted power on demand.
The fact is the world is awash in oil and will be through at least 2050.
The only real threat to king oil is a new safer nuclear system.
“Solar and wind must be backed up with fossil due to the intermittent nature of it’s production”
If only there were devices that could store electricity for later use … someone should really invent something like that!
until we stuck our noses into the Middle East, they were far better off.
Trump was getting our nose out, Briben, not so much.
That Arab front were the instigators and perpetrators of 9-11; Iran had nothing to do with it.
True, they all disgust me.
I’m pro-justice and the pirate colony lies north of Gaza.
That colony is as doomed as the ersatz kingdoms that it conspires with.
M. K. Bhadrakumar, commenting from India, has a view on Iran . .excerpts–
As mother used to say: “We’ll see.”