As indirect negotiations between the US and Iran to revive the JCPOA are being dragged out, Washington continues to blame Tehran for the lack of progress despite President Biden’s refusal to lift all Trump-era sanctions.
Speaking to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was “unclear” if Iran was willing to revive the JCPOA. “We’ve been engaged in indirect conversations, as you know, for the last couple of months, and it remains unclear whether Iran is willing and prepared to do what it needs to do to come back into compliance,” he said.
Blinken’s comments rely on the false narrative that Tehran is violating the JCPOA. The reality is, the US is the party that violated the deal in 2018 by imposing sanctions on Iran. Technically, Iran and the other JCPOA signatories — Russia, China, the UK, France, and Germany — are still parties to the deal, while the US is not.
Despite positive comments about the talks that have been ongoing in Vienna from EU mediators, Blinken made it sound like there’s a chance no agreement will be reached. “We’re not even at the stage of returning to compliance for compliance,” Blinken said. “We don’t know if that’s actually going to happen.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif responded to Blinken’s comments on Twitter. “It remains unclear whether @POTUS and @SecBlinken are ready to bury the failed ‘maximum pressure’ policy of Trump and @mikepompeo, and cease using #EconomicTerrorism as bargaining ‘leverage,'” Zarif wrote.
Zarif also reminded the Biden administration that Iran is still technically in compliance with the nuclear deal. “Iran is in compliance with the #JCPOA. Just read paragraph 36,” he wrote.
Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA outlines mechanisms the US and Iran could use if they believe the other side is in violation of their commitments. Iran did this by protesting the US sanctions in 2018 and gave other JCPOA participants a whole year to offset the US measures before Iran began gradually increasing the activity of its civilian nuclear program.
Because President Biden does not want to lift all of Trump’s sanctions, the two sides are negotiating what measures the US is willing to lift and what is acceptable relief for Tehran. The talks in Vienna are expected to resume later this week.
How is it possible that Blinken was ever involved in the JCPOA? When Blinken says it’s “unclear,” then it’s “clear” that Iran is “unclear.” When Zarif refers to a specific paragraph that it’s “clear,” then Blinken says it’s “unclear.” Blinken seems in it for the journey–not the agreement.
Yes, …upstage it’s just another variant on the never ending WMD soap opera; and, downstage, doubtless, Don Rumsfeld’s shock-n-awe and DJT’s fire-n-fury, …the classic gangster genre.
As shown in this article, there is a very complicated web which connects Iran’s nuclear program to decisions made by Washington during the Ford Administration:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/08/washington-and-irans-nuclear.html
Washington’s geopolitical maneuverings often lead to a series of unintended consequences, particularly when it comes to dealing with Iran.
There are elections in Iran on June 18 and most views are that a much more rabid anti-American government will emerge.
I believe that because of these looming elections, the Biden administration was never seriously negotiating a US return to JCPOA. The expected shift to more rabid anti-American policies may justify keeping all sorts of penalties against Iran in place, including penalties put into effect by Trump after he took us out of JCPOA.
I do not hesitate to claim that President Biden lied when he claimed that he would get back into JCPOA. For his rating that could be a big negative.
The UK, France, and Germany are left holding the empty bag.
Once more Zarif makes Blinken look like Blinken.
LOL .. Blinken is a blinken idiot.
The US is the entity which all but destroyed the JCPOA. It is up to the US to remove the sanctions and then rejoin.
Once again, Biden Administration results are underwhelming, compared with the splashy headlines. (That is not an endorsement of his predecessor.)
Once again, Biden Administration results are underwhelming, compared with the splashy headlines. (That is not an endorsement of his predecessor.)
Has anyone doubted this deal is between Zionists and the Iranian government?
Per the Palestinian situation, I’m encouraged by pedestrian and US labor union efforts within the US to deny Israeli-owned ships to be docked and unloaded at West Coast ports. If we included airports and land transportation trade, this might become a global effort.
The ultimate in boycott, divest, and sanction.
Hahahahahahaha!!!
It was never going to happen. The US is Israel’s lackey. And the neocons, not Biden, are in charge.
The Biden “campaign promise”, like every word out of his mouth for forty years, like every campaign promise from the mouth of every politician since Abel, was a lie. It’s all Kabuki to give the impression that “Biden” genuinely sought to return to the deal (because, of course, ***TRUMP!!!***). And “Biden” is in quotes above because there is no Biden there, just an empty husk filling the chair, reading off the teleprompter, and signing where his Neocon handlers tell him to sign.
The Kabuki has a singular purpose, to gull the gullible into believing that the Biden administration “tried their very, very best” to return to the deal, but that in the end “the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism”, evil Iran, refused to cooperate. Iran bad yet again. Surprise surprise!
In fairness, Biden seems no more senile than Trump. The main difference is that Biden apparently either still has enough mental function remaining to be less inclined to go make himself look like an idiot on camera, or has better caretakers than Trump did in that respect.
“In fairness, Biden seems no more senile than Trump.”
C’mon Thomas. Dislike Trump for his policy failures, buffoonish — to you — behavior, or weakness in dealing with Deep State criminals, but he in no way manifests the onset of senility and lack of mental alertness so evident in Biden.
Well, let’s see. He tweeted incorrect information on a hurricane path, then drew an expanded hurricane circle on a map with a Sharpie to prove himself right, then said he didn’t know who drew it. Did he really not remember who drew it, or was he just lying?
He slurred his speech, said “oranges” when he meant “origins,” and looked confused when an aide correct him, then tried to say “origins” and instead said “oranges” again (it’s called Phonemic paraphasia). That wasn’t an outlier (“renoversh” for “renovations,” “mishiz” for “missiles,” and so forth). Called Tim Cook “Tim Apple.” Called Paradise, California “Pleasure.” He’s also repeatedly displayed signs of Namic parasthesia (running multiple words together — “Betanyahu” for Benjamin Netanyahu, “capisicle” for “space capsule,” etc.). “My father is German. Right? Was German. And born in a very wonderful place in Germany.” (His father was born in New York City).
And that’s just at the micro level. At the macro level, his digressions into tangential speech are also a symptom of dementia.
We’d probably see more of this stuff from Biden, too, if he spoke in public as much as Trump did. Either he still has enough brain function left to decide to not do so, or he has keepers who are better than Trump’s at keeping him from doing so.
If I was related to either Trump or Biden, I’d be very worried if one of them took off alone in the car. I had an uncle who decided to take a trip from Illinois to Florida alone to visit a resort he liked but that his wife wasn’t into going to that time. His wife finally heard about, not from, him a week later. He’d been found wandering on the street, confused, not even knowing what city he was in.
Is Biden senile? Almost certainly. Is Trump senile? Almost certainly. But that’s just my opinion. I’m not a doctor.
“He tweeted incorrect information on a hurricane path, then drew an expanded hurricane circle on a map with a Sharpie to prove himself right,”
The hurricane path put out by the National Hurricane Center pointed in that direction and subsequently also proved to be wrong. Are they mentally incompetent as well?
Mispronunciations? Really? Puleeeese! He can and has spoken for hours, coherently, with connected ideas, and with humor. Biden forgets where he is.
“I had an uncle who … [was] found wandering on the street, confused, not even knowing what city he was in.” Relevance? To Biden, yes. Biden forgets where he is. (As I noted above.) Trump does not.
“Is Biden senile? Almost certainly. Is Trump senile? Almost certainly. But that’s just my opinion.” Not to be unpleasant, but your opinion is colored by your anti-Trump attitude and partisanship. (I refrain from calling it broken-brain TDS, but if the shoe fits …)
And regarding the toll suffered from those broken brains and Trump Derangement Syndrome, just look at the hundreds of thousands of lives lost as a result of the rabid attack on hydroxychloroquine + zinc prophylaxis that followed Trump’s report of his HCQ+Zinc regimen. In the resulting media shitstorm of disparagement and ridicule, — Crazy Trump! Stupid and dangerous Trump! — did you even once hear anyone acknowledge that the President of the United States enjoys the most capable medical health care team on planet earth, and that these top tier medical authorities, not Trump, must have vetted and approved the President’s HCQ+zinc regimen?
Of course not. That would have “debunked” the anti-Trump hate-fest. (And please don’t embarrass yourself by repeating the “HCQ+zinc has been debunked” fake science. Exactly the opposite is the reality.)
Trump is gone … (for now). Maybe pick another pony to ride.
So in other words, if we ignore all the obvious signs that Trump is senile (and your apparent borderline illiteracy vis a vis National Hurricane Center maps), Trump obviously isn’t senile.
“He can and has spoken for hours, coherently, with connected ideas”
I’ve never heard him go more than 2 minutes without making himself sound like a fucking idiot.
“your opinion is colored by your anti-Trump attitude and partisanship”
True. In exactly the same way, and to exactly the same degree, that it’s colored by my anti-Biden attitude and partisanship.
I’ve defended Trump when he’s been defensible. I’ve noted that he’s been “business as usual” in the 99 44/100ths% of instances where that’s been the case. And I’ve noticed that he’s a raging dumpster fire of incompetence when that has come up too.
Mr.Knapp nice observation on the senile state of our former and present presidents, I agree with your opinion even though you are not a doctor. ; – )
I assure you that you are not alone since many astute people that I know regardless of former party affiliations see the same thing.
As you now our dual party system is severely corrupted and completely owned by a foreign state. So the differences between one party or the other is nonexistent.
Trump and Biden are both hard core members of the same ‘deep state swamp’. Unfortunately the poor Trump cultists continue in their ignorance and belief that Don the Con would be freeing them from the swamp.
Keep dreaming Trumpers!
Zarif tells the USA negotiators to read Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA,
“Now really Zarif? Do you expect them to read…”
Our neocon poster boy Blinkey counters by insisting that the USA is picking and choosing what sanctions to continue, in other words we are just tightening the screws on Iran.
But what the Zionists are really doing is just stalling, and anxiously awaiting the June 18 Iranian elections. That way if the Iranian hardliners win, which seems likely, the USA can do its Seinfeld Soup Nazi imitation, and declare:
“NO Sanction Relief for YOU”!
iran is a victim
iran is a victim