Biden administration officials are downplaying the idea that Iran’s presidential election will impact negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. But the election of Ebrahim Raisi, a judge under US sanctions who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, might give President Biden the excuse to blame the failure to salvage the JCPOA on Tehran.
While he’s viewed as a hardliner, Raisi has endorsed the negotiations with the US and favors a revival of the JCPOA if the US lifts sanctions. The issue is, the Biden administration refuses to lift all Trump-era sanctions. The current government of Hassan Rouhani is negotiating what sanctions the US is willing to lift. Limited sanctions relief might not be acceptable to Raisi since Washington violated the deal in the first place.
Rouhani has little to show for negotiating the JCPOA and trusting the US. Meanwhile, Iran remains under crippling economic sanctions, and the people are suffering. Raisi’s position on the JCPOA might be portrayed as a hardline one by Western media, but any clear-eyed observer could have predicted Iran’s next president would not be so patient with Washington.
Sources told Iran’s PressTV that the US still refuses to lift sanctions that would bring the US back into compliance with the JCPOA. The report said the US also hasn’t agreed to any verification methods and has not agreed on any safeguards to prevent another US withdrawal from the deal. Rouhani’s government has previously rebuked PressTV sources on the negotiations, but it doesn’t appear that there’s been any pushback over this latest report.
On top of the situation with the JCPOA, the US is stoking tensions with Tehran by slamming Iran’s electoral process. After the vote, a US State Department spokesperson said, “Iranians were denied their right to choose their own leaders in a free and fair electoral process.” Iran denounced the US criticism as interference.
“We consider this statement as an example of interference in Iran’s internal affairs. We condemn it,” said Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei. “The US government is not in a position to comment on the electoral process in Iran or any other country.”
The US took its hostility against Iran even further on Tuesday and seized US-based domains for Iranian media outlets, including PressTV, for reasons that remain unclear. The US also seized the domain for Al-Masirah TV, a media outlet aligned with Yemen’s Houthis.
The sixth round of JCPOA talks between the US and Iran concluded on Sunday without signs of significant progress. Despite the constant US hostility against Iran — not to mention Israel’s — and its refusal to lift sanctions, if the negotiations fail, the US will blame Iran and Raisi, who will take office in August. Judging by President Biden’s initial hesitation to enter talks with Iran or offer any concessions, this could have been the plan all along.
The United States Government is delusional. The JCPOA is Dead after the seizure of Press TV’s websites.
Press TV’s web site wasn’t seized. One of its domain names was. There’s a difference.
A bunch of domain names were seized. An Iranian ship was seized, with its cargo, oil, sold. Sanctions imposed on Iran, during the pandemic.
We are the good guys, you know./s
Thomas,
What is the difference?
Seems like the US is arrogating to itself the “hegemonic” right to be the policeman of the internet. Like they are the military “policeman” of the world. Like they are the policeman of the money system of the world.
EDIT:
Reading further, I note that the domain names in question are ***US*** domain names. Okay. Does that mean that the US is only policing the US portion of internet? Annoying, but slightly less annoying.
Violence the tool of feckless. Stupid counterproductive & craven pandering to rogue nuclear entity. Will have no actual change but to make more enmity & strife. Biden needs to stop annoying & obtuse talk & actions and go looking for his lost marbles.
Unfortunately, the US government has the power to steal domain names that are in certain US-administered TLDs (.com, etc.). There are other domain names they don’t have the power to steal.
As far as the actual web sites themselves, that depends on where the servers are located. If I was especially worried about my web stuff being seized, I’d have it hosted in Iceland and get domain names the US government can’t touch.
What we basically have here is the difference between stealing the inventory of a Best Buy, or stealing the sign off the front of that Best Buy. The US government did the latter. They’re both wrong, but the latter isn’t as potentially damaging as the former.
Just make sure Antiwar.com has a backup policy.
The DOJ can’t handle the truth, as Jack Nicholson said in that movie.
“I want the truth!”, as Tom Cruise said in the same movie…..
New Boss, same old, same old….
Here is what Russia had to say about Iran’s nuclear program and the JCPOA at a recent meeting between the two nations:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2021/04/iran-russia-and-iranian-nuclear-program.html
From all appearances, the Biden Administration has a very, very narrow window of opportunity to remove the sanctions that it has imposed on Iran that are contrary to the intentions of the nuclear agreement, reinstate the JCPOA and reduce the risk of an all-out war in the Persian Gulf and additional tensions with Iran’s ally, Russia.
That was the whole point of this pathetic charade.
As a candidate, Biden promised to restore the JCPOA. However, doing so would cause Saudi Arabia and Israel to get all butthurt.
Therefore, in order to forestall this terrifying possibility, the Biden regime chooses to stall, throw out impossible conditions, and constantly move goalposts until the Iranian election, whereupon the moderates, now discredited (for urging unending patience with a Biden Administration that acts in bad faith, that demands constant concessions and gives nothing in return), loses to hardliners, who refuse to play stupid games with the US in order to win prizes that turn out to be stupid.
Biden Administration throws up its hands and says “But we tried so hard!“, while conveniently forgetting that they made any deal impossible.
Conservatives whine that we haven’t invaded yet.
How can anyone pretend these ILLEGAL, cruel sanctions should remain? The USA is at fault, the USA∕Israel pretend Iran is a threat, and the JCPOA restricted Iran’s nuclear rights after years of negotiations, yet the USA wants more. The USA, the only nation to have used nukes on humans, and which helps Israel to hide its illegal hoard, pretends Iran is a danger!!! Biden is just Trump in a senile guise!!