Obama On Path Towards Grand-Slam In Diplomacy [Update]

25 Comments

1. 

   Oui on November 8, 2013 at 11:49 am

   .

   Suspended after not paying dues for two years in Palestinian dispute

   (Gulf News) – American influence in culture, science and education around the world took a high-profile blow on Friday after the US automatically lost voting rights at UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), after missing a crucial deadline to repay its debt to the world’s cultural agency.

   The US hasn’t paid its dues to the Paris-based Unesco in protest over the decision by world governments to make Palestine a Unesco member in 2011. Israel suspended its dues at the same time and also lost voting rights on Friday.

   Under Unesco rules, the US had until Friday morning to resume funding or explain itself, or it automatically loses its vote. A Unesco official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the issue, said nothing was received from either the US or Israel.

   The suspension of US contributions, which account for $80 million (Dh294million) a year — 22 per cent of Unesco’s overall budget — brought the agency to the brink of a financial crisis and forced it to cut or scale back American-led initiatives such as Holocaust education and tsunami research over the past two years.

   …
   Among Unesco programmes already slashed over funding shortages is one in Iraq that was intended to help restore water facilities. In danger was a Holocaust and genocide awareness programme in Africa to teach about non-violence, non-discrimination and ethnic tolerance, using the example of the mass killing of Jews during World War II.

   This loss is a particular blow to the US, since Holocaust awareness was one of the areas the country aggressively promoted in the agency’s agenda when it rejoined in 2002 after an 18-year hiatus, during which the US had withdrawn from the organisation over differences in vision.

2. 

   kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 12:05 pm

   The Peace Train is virtually unstoppable now. And Israel is not the only unhappy partner….

   Turkey Expels Saudi Intelligence Over Diplomatic Rift: Source

   Ankara plans to shut Saudi intelligence offices in Turkey following a series of diplomatic disputes over the conflicts in Syria and Egypt, a well-placed Turkish source told Al-Akhbar.

   The Saudi intelligence presence in Turkey is mainly there to provide support and training for armed groups fighting in Syria.

   According to the source, Turkish authorities believe Saudi Arabia’s position on Syria is no longer in line with Turkey’s interests, as Ankara is reportedly trying to ease tensions with Tehran and Damascus.

   Saudi Arabia Whines About U.S. Betrayals On Iran, Syria

   Saudi Arabia is making known its extreme displeasure with the U.S.’ increasingly moderate, pragmatic approach to conflicts with Syria and Iran.  When the corpulent, oil-besotted sheikhs have a fit of pique, U.S. presidents are supposed to quake in their boots, lest the spigots be turned off.

   Last month, the Saudis waited in eager anticipation for us to unleash cruise missiles with Bashar al-Assad’s name written on them.  When that didn’t happen, the Saudis told the world they would accelerate their arming of Syria’s Islamist extremist rebel forces.  Listen to this Saudi prince bellow his displeasure:

   “The current charade of international control over Bashar’s chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious, and designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down but also to help Assad to butcher his people,” said Prince Turki, a member of the Saudi royal family and a former director of Saudi intelligence.

   See my just posted diary Kerry Speaks Truth To Israel, Peace Train Rolling Now

3. 

   kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 12:32 pm

   From September 27 to October 4 comment selections at Conflicts Forum….

   In a recent article, Graham Fuller, a former vice-chair of the US National Intelligence Council speculated that “it is possible that President Obama – without articulating it, perhaps without fully intending it – may have strayed into the radical re-forging of American foreign policy?”. Fuller was referring to the sudden turnabout, whereby “bombs were about to fall on Syria … and suddenly we receive accounts of civil exchanges between the American and Iranian Presidents” – adding that a linked body of enshrined foreign policy axioms may be quietly unraveling: American exceptionalism, American unilateralism and America as architect of the `global order’.

   In fact, Fuller included two others in his list of possibly unraveling axioms: “America as world policeman, moral commentator, and global hegemon” [CF’s emphasis]

   . These latter are particular interesting because they perhaps explain more about why such an important change may be occurring. These latter perhaps have become the drivers for change – rather than simply standing as some of the consequences to change.  It may also suggest that the shift may not be as `inadvertent’ as supposed.  Fuller hints at this.  What became so apparent in respect to Syria was the buckling of the US `system’ in the face of the prospect of even limited intervention in Syria.  The American public and Congress precisely walked-back from being policeman, moral arbitrator for Middle East societies, and from the role of global hegemon. The public, the pollsters concluded, were giving the `thumbs-down’ to this entire mission, this narrative of America’s raison-être, as much as just saying “no” to dropping bombs on Damascus.  What Fuller is suggesting is that Obama was not showing weakness, but “actually wisdom” in recognizing that the US cannot simply persist, as though uni-polarism is not visibly eroding in the face of increasing push-back, and that moral disarray at home has been undermining the American public’s confidence and appetite for pronouncing morally on each and every conflict in the world

   Some of the bold above is mine.

   Did you notice this above?

   “…speculated that it is possible that President Obama – without articulating it, perhaps without fully intending it – may have strayed into the radical re-forging of American foreign policy?”.

   Yeah! How did that boy figure that out? (snark)

   • 

     Marie2 on November 8, 2013 at 1:08 pm

     Wouldn’t give much credence to Graham Fuller on negotiations in any cold war type conflict resolution.  

     • 

       kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 5:05 pm

       From within the conflict it is perpetual war. The beauty of the Peace Train is that it is bypassing the usual storylines and hasbara that are based upon an us v. them, win-lose dynamic. The ground is dissolving underneath our feet. A new order is being born in the Middle East. And a new age with a different sensibility is arising, worldwide. Those who recognize the shift to win-win dynamics are surging out ahead. Those who stick to the old paradigms will go under.

       And nothing but old dreams and used thoughts need die.

       • 

         Marie2 on November 8, 2013 at 9:11 pm

         Envy your optimism.

         Still recall saying “Wow!” when the Carter brokered Egypt-Israel peace deal was announced.

         Perhaps the best reason today for optimism is the war fatigue and related economic malaise in the US.  

         • 

           kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 10:49 pm

           There are many individual trends now coming together. War fatigue and can’t afford it here at home in the US are major ones. But there are plenty more at play on the ground. I pointed to some trends in my first posts here at the Frog Pond.

           Four Seas and a Silk Road: The Coming Peace Train

           The Coming Peace Train: Local Stops

4. 

   Oui on November 8, 2013 at 12:46 pm

   .

   U.S.: Israeli criticism of possible Iran deal is premature

   GENEVA (Haaretz) – The White House rejected Israel’s criticism of a possible deal between Iran and the West, saying ‘any critique of the deal is premature.’ “There is no deal,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

   The statement comes as a response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning earlier on Friday, who said that a deal with Iran would be “a big win for the Islamic Republic, but a bad and very dangerous deal for peace and the international community.”

   U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Geneva at around 4 P.M.

   …
   Upon arriving in Geneva, Kerry said that Iran and the six world powers have not reached any deal yet. “I want to emphasize there is not an agreement at this point,” Kerry told reporters shortly after arriving in Geneva. “I don’t think anybody should mistake that there are some important gaps that have to be closed.”

   Read on for LIVE updates!

   ○ Secr. Kerry Travel to the Middle East and Europe
   ○ Op-Ed in Israel: It’s 1939 all over again
   • 

     kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 1:58 pm

     Oh no! It’s not Friday night yet! More spin! More spin!

5. 

   Oui on November 8, 2013 at 2:48 pm

   .

   Bibi Thinks Oval Office Is Place To Give Obama a ‘Teachable Moment’

   (May 20, 2011) – In a meeting that reportedly oozed with awkwardness, President Barack Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and Netanyahu apparently felt that with the cameras going it was a perfect place to offer Obama a “teachable moment.” Literally. With a lecture.

   A smart move? Or one that will sour Israel’s critics here and abroad and prove to be unwise in dealing with the Obama administration. Moments such as this usually take place quietly, via diplomatic channels.

   ○ Netanyahu Extending His Middle Finger to the World   Dec. 3, 2012
   ○ 20 Years of Failed Middle-East Peace Policy   July 12, 2012
   ○ Bibi Netanyahu: Book of Esther, Persecution, Deliverance and the Holocaust   March 7, 2012
   ○ Dennis Ross Back in Town, George Mitchell Resigns   May 28, 2011

   BooMan’s fp story – Thoughts, and a Warning, on Israel   April 7, 2005 .

6. 

   kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 3:57 pm

   From Haaretz….

   Nuclear Accord With Iran Could Create Fierce Diplomatic Storm Between U.S. And Israel

   If there were a synoptic map for diplomatic storms, the National Weather Service would be putting out a hurricane warning right now. The winds are blowing cold, tensions are on the rise and tempers are beginning to flare in the Bermuda triangle of relations between Israel, the US and the American Jewish community.

   And given that the turbulence is being caused by an issue long deemed to be critical to Israel’s very existence, we may actually be facing a rare Category 5 flare up, a “superstorm” of US-Israeli relations.

   The prime minister’s video-taped, no-holds barred condemnation on Friday of the “very bad deal” that Israel “utterly rejects”, photographed in unflattering close up that only magnified its ominous resonance, seems to set the stage for a monumental confrontation. At the very least, a “first step” agreement on Iran’s nuclear program could trigger a Congressional counteroffensive aimed at strengthening sanctions rather than relieving them, with Israel and its supporters in Washington rallying to help undermine the Geneva accord. The stakes, and the potential fallout, couldn’t be higher.

7. 

   Oui on November 8, 2013 at 4:04 pm

   .

   Saudi prince: I don’t know if Obama gets it

   Do you feel Saudi explanations fall on deaf ears with the Obama administration?

   Every day there are more than 50 to 100 people killed in Syria. And the world sits back and watches.

   Do you feel President Obama just doesn’t get it?

   I don’t know if he gets it or not. But I think the world community is definitely at fault here. The Russians because they are supporting Bashar and allowing him to do the killing. The Chinese because they have vetoed any measures in the United Nations to prevent him from doing that. The Europeans for not supplying the opposition with weapons. The United States for continually not supplying the opposition with what they need. It’s a worldwide apathy — a criminally negligent attitude toward the Syrian people.

   How do you see the situation in Iran?

   When President [Hassan] Rouhani was elected, King Abdullah sent him a note of congratulations and expressed the wish for a fruitful relationship with Iran, and Rouhani responded in kind. Since then, he has made several statements about how he would like to see improved relations with Saudi Arabia.

   Is Rouhani taking the West for a ride?

   It’s too early to tell. He’s very clever. Being able to engage with Iran is a good thing. But his sweet words need to be translated into action.

   How do you feel about Secretary Kerry’s talks with the Palestinians?

   What we hear from the Palestinian negotiators is that the talks are substantive.

   Palestine is one of the issues mentioned by Saudi Arabia as a reason for turning down the UN Security Council seat, meaning the kingdom feels the UN should do what exactly?

   The UN should implement the resolutions passed by the Security Council — 242 and 338. The US keeps vetoing whatever follow-up resolutions can be put in place for 242. This was one of the complaints by Saudi Arabia. This veto system allows Russia on one side and the United States on the other to do whatever they like. Russia created the chemical weapons resolution that has allowed Al Assad to stay in power. And they continue to supply him with weapons, and they don’t get sanctioned.

   Do you think it was a mistake for the US to support Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki?

   I am convinced of that. Since he became prime minister, Al Maliki has pushed aside the Sunnis from any meaningful positions in Iraq. When he came up for re-election last time, it was an Iranian general, Qassem Sulaimani, who came from Tehran to Baghdad to pressure the other Shiite parties in Iraq to join Al Maliki’s coalition. Because of Iran’s pressure, Al Maliki got a majority in the parliament. The irony is that Al Maliki is supported equally by the United States and Iran. It’s as if there are blinders as far as Al Maliki is concerned. There are more people dying in Iraq today than there were at the height of the insurgency in 2006. He is doing nothing for Iraq. There is no improvement in the security situation or the economy.

   Obama said the use of chemical weapons would be a red line and then Syria used chemical weapons, the president brought the issue to Congress, and Russia eventually bailed him out. Does this make the US look weak?

   Absolutely. Public opinion throughout the area is that the United States is not playing the role it should play.

   Do you think Russia is filling the gap in the Middle East?

   I don’t think Russia will ever fill the gap. It’s costing the Russians the rest of the Muslim world. They are fighting on the wrong side.

   • 

     kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 5:21 pm

     Of course, he took the Peace Train to New York City!

     ………….

     From the interview with Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki Bin Faisal Al Saud, former chief of intelligence and brother of the foreign minister. (not Bandar?)

     Would you be in favour of military action against Iran?

     No, the consequences would be catastrophic. You’re not going to stop Iran from developing its nuclear capabilities. Military action would incentivise the Iranian people to develop a nuclear deterrent. If you hit them, they will do their utmost to get one. If you don’t, you can still work diplomatically through the zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

     • 

       Oui on November 8, 2013 at 6:22 pm

       .
       Correction: Interview was with former intelligence chief Prince Turki Bin Faisal

       Saudis unconvinced by John Kerry’s show of goodwill

       (Gulf News) – Washington has shown some willingness to risk strains with allies to pursue US goals of avoiding military intervention in Syria and seeking a nuclear deal with Iran. But Riyadh’s message has been uncharacteristically blunt and public in recent weeks, as a senior prince — intelligence chief Bandar Bin Sultan — spoke of a “major shift” away from the United States.

       • 

         kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 7:11 pm

         I thought his remarks concerning Iran were interesting. No hint of burning of bridges with Iran in his talk. Probably not clear to some (many?) in the KSA how it all shakes out. Nukes or no, KSA will think twice before making Iran a direct foe. Also, Iran has made overtures and maybe doing business makes more sense for the Sheiks.

         Now Prince Bandar’s faction is likely something else.

   • 

     kafkananda on November 8, 2013 at 6:04 pm

     I’m posting a rather long comment about the KSA by bevin from moonofalabama.org. I thought it is a worthwhile look into the Kingdom.

     There is a sense in which Saudi Arabia is an illusion, not a real state but a construct of US foreign policy which, very handily, occupies an empty quarter of the Arabian peninsula.

     It is meant to be unstable. It lacks anything resembling a constitution, giving its government legitimacy, because its sponsors prefer it that way: if the people of Arabia were given a voice it would be almost unanimous in its opposition to the Kingdom’s allies, in support of Palestine and against collaboration with Israel and the US.

     The alternative source of legitimacy, that of protectors of the Holy Places, is equally fragile. Photographs showing the appalling “redevelopmemnt” of Mecca almost suggest a deliberate affront to pious muslims and traditionalists with the added provocation of mimicking the most vulgar “western” idioms and tastes.

     This makes the ruler, whoever he may be, completely dependent on the US government and Aramco. The fact that the oil resources are largely located in the shia Eastern Province, whose people are doubly discriminated against-firstly as mere subjects, secondly as heretics -greatly compounds that dependence. The one authentic note in the alleged Saudi complaint against Obama’s Syrian policy was that the US failed to guarantee security in the Eastern Province. It sounded right because without US involvement in keeping the lid on the east (and Bahrain) the Saudis would long since have been expelled.

     The truth is that Saudi Arabia is ruled by foreigners, although many of them are born in Arabia. Prince Bandar is a perfect example: after quarter of a century as Ambassador in Washington and years of indoctrination/education in American ways, he thinks not like an American but like a member of the ruling Beltway elite and regards Americans and people generally as pawns (see above) to be played with.

     All these stories of “Saudi anger” with Washington are nonsensical, but there is a grain of truth in them: Bandar and his ilk are part of the neo-con faction, fundamentally allied with the Likud-ist factions in the United States. The “anger” Bandar expresses is part of a neo-con chorus which includes Tel Aviv’s hard line fascists and Washington’s dominant Israel First party.

     It is no accident that all the Gulf emirs, as well as Jordan and Saudi, are not only entirely dependent on foreign support but pursue policies designed to alienate their subjects, just as it is no accident that Britain sponsored the rule of sunni tribalists, from the interior, over urbanised, often shia, families in the ports which fell under Imperial “protection” in the C19th. The protection offered was against the merchants, fishermen, port workers and sailors of places like Aden and Bahrain. Many of the rulers of these places-Abdullah of Jordan being a pathetic example- retain only the slenderest of links to their fellow countrymen. They are educated in the US and Britain, they are socialised in the jet set and barely speak their own language.
     They follow in the model of the late, and greatly unlamented, Shah, a playboy and dilettante whose power rested on the twin foundations of banks and torture chambers, all staffed by foreign or foreign trained professionals.
     Bandar’s plan for Syria- the neo-con plan- is a classic expression of a US foreign policy which goes round in ever diminishing circles.
     The jihadi auxiliaries who have been knocking about since at least Yemen in the early sixties, but in fact can be traced back much further, have moved from the periphery. They first served as not much more than useful distractions for public opinion and, more importantly, fall guys for SAS type terrorism, now they have become central. Almost the entire burden of the fighting falls on them and their militias, `stiffened’ with veterans of CIA jihads in Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan.

     The strategy of using sunni fanatics to pull down US enemies and then disposing of them before they can turn against their masters has been abandoned. US policy, modelled after Israel’s, has become entirely destructive. The aim is to turn the middle east into a wasteland full of lightly armed warlords who can be ruled from, literally, above. This is the old Churchillian fantasy of the RAF plus a few fortified bases ruling Iraq, Yemen and the Gulf. Now the RAF is replaced by drones, and there is no need for bases at all.
     The Libyan “no fly” zone strategy was an example of this recycled thinking.
     The logic of the current policy inexorably leads to the lunacy of an Israeli Empire: the entire region to be openly policed and managed by Israel, making it a major Mediterranean and European power as well as Uncle Sam’s oilfield security guard.
     Which is to say that, left to itself, the US and Israel will very likely self destruct, because, as the current Saudi succession crisis will almost certainly show, the great problem with puppets is that they aren’t very good at decisions. They lack the mental agility and understanding of reality that helps so much in ruling.

     Posted by: bevin | Nov 4, 2013 11:10:49 AM | 3

     My editorial bolding above.

     I apologize if that is too long. And I consider that one comment from a much larger post so fair use.

8. 

   Oui on November 9, 2013 at 2:38 pm

   .

   Bayit Yehudi MK to Kerry: You are not an ‘honest broker’ to Israeli-Palestinian talks

   (JPost) – US Secretary of State John Kerry is not a fair negotiator, MK Orit Struck (Bayit Yehudi) wrote Friday, in what appears to be a trend of lawmakers from her party penning angry letters to Kerry.

   Struck’s letter came after Channel 2 News interviewed Kerry, and the lawmaker summarized his comments as “threatening Israel with a third Intifada if it refuses to capitulate to [his] demands and those of the Palestinians and remove its soldiers from the areas of Judea and Samaria.”

   What Kerry told Channel 2’s Udi Segal is: “The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos. Does Israel want a third intifada?”

   The Bayit Yehudi MK thanked Kerry in her letter, saying his words “finally and most strikingly revealed the extent to which you cannot serve as an honest broker.”

   “Whose side are you on, Mr. Secretary? On the side of terrorists who are waging an Intifada against women and children? Or on the side of the soldiers who are saving human lives?” she asked.

   Did Obama call Netanyahu ‘a pain in the a**’?

   • 

     kafkananda on November 11, 2013 at 2:12 pm

     From the article……

     “We all know that Bibi Netanyahu is a pain in the ass, Obama said,” according to the book. “But the president blamed himself for accepting the distorted political prism through which every effort to achieve a settlement in the region was mediated.”

     I would add this to what Obama is said to have expressed.. “the president blamed himself for accepting the distorted political prism through which every effort to achieve a settlement in the region was mediated…….and indicated he was going to change that paradigm for sure.”

9. 

   Oui on November 10, 2013 at 4:51 am

   .
   ○ France24: No deal after France objected to a proposed agreement
   ○ RT: France stalls deal on Iran nuclear program, talks to resume shortly
   ○ YnetNews: Is France touting Netanyahu’s tough stance of no enrichment?

   France foreign policy is purely based on SELF INTEREST. Has always been so in Europe and also in global affairs. Typical is the bombing of Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor which set out to protest French nuclear tests in the Pacific. France has huge interest in African states and took it upon themselves to intervene militarily in Mali in order to protect the Niger uranium mines expolited by French nuclear agglomerate Aréva.

   The Middle-East with Lebanon and Syria is still part of the French colonial empire of influence. France with Hollande was the last man left standing to intervene in Syria by the US bombing raid.

   France wants those Saudi Arabian military contracts awfully bad and will crawl through the sands from Mecca to Riyadh to get the King’s signature.

   Netanyahu will fall into a deep depression when he awakens to find his last resort enemy, the ayatollahs of Persia, have returned in grace to the western powers and the huge looming contracts await the BP’s, Exxon, Shell, Halliburton and Bechtel.

   In the assassination of Rafic Hariri, France joined Israel and the US to put blame on and frame Assad’s Syria for the massive bombing. The UN investigation has proved otherwise.

   ○ CIA activities in Persia under the Shah

   • 

     Oui on November 10, 2013 at 4:16 pm

     .

     France blocks last-minute deal on Iran nuclear program

     (Digital Journal) – The Geneva conference saw Iran and major world powers pushing for a deal that would freeze some of Iran’s nuclear program. The renewed talks brought an option for Iran to end the crippling international sanctions and opportunity to sell its oil.

     However, clear divisions emerged among the US and European allies when France hinted that the proposals being discussed did not sufficiently diminish the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb.

     Reportedly a last-minute draft deal on Iran’s nuclear program hit a snag when France insisted on Iran to suspend the Arak heavy water reactor while talks move with the aim of reaching a first-stage agreement and then a comprehensive final deal, the Tehran Times reported.

     French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius caused the talks to hit a snag as he insisted that Iran must suspend the Arak heavy water reactor while negotiations continue with the goal of reaching a first-stage agreement and then a comprehensive final deal.

     French foreign minister Laurent Fabius raised the objection that Iran’s Arak IR-40 heavy water reactor south-east of Tehran could produce enough plutonium for several nuclear weapons a year once it goes online [slated for 2015! – Oui]. He also raised objections over efforts to limit Iran’s uranium enrichment to levels.

     PressTV: France wrecks P5+1 deal out of concern for ‘Israel’s security’

   • 

     Oui on November 10, 2013 at 4:44 pm

     .

     France Crashes the Geneva Party, Scuttles Iran Deal

     (Informed Comment) – The Iranian newspaper Tabnak printed a minute-by-minute account of Saturday’s dramatic on-again off-again push toward a diplomatic agreement on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. It contains little editorializing but by the key placement of news items, it tells a story about French and Israeli bad faith.

     Catherine Ashton of the European Union and Secretary of State John Kerry had worked for months with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on a text, which put forward a set confidence-building steps. They were careful to have no details leak.

     Because Iranian president Hasan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif were deeply concerned that their opening toward negotiations with the West would be sabotaged by hard liners in the Revolutionary Guards and around theocrat-in-chief Ali Khamenei, they had stipulated that no details of any agreement be leaked during the negotiations. Fabius blatantly disregarded this rule. Le Monde reported openly that he had three concerns.

     Agence France Presse reported the reaction to Fabius’s turn as the bull in the China shop. One anonymous diplomat told journalists,

     “The Americans, the European Union and the Iranians have worked intensively for months on this proposal, and this is nothing more than an attempt by Fabius to give himself belated importance.”

     Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) greeted Fabius’s stunt with “Thank God for France!” on CNN. Sen. John McCain tweeted: “Viva La France!“

     Iran and France trade barbs as nuclear talks hit trouble

     ○ Iranian deputy industry minister ‘shot dead’ outside Tehran
     • 

       Oui on November 10, 2013 at 5:05 pm

       .
       Hollande’s Visit to Israel Gets Upgrade
        

   • 

     Oui on November 11, 2013 at 6:02 am

     .
     BREAKING NEWS: NUCLEAR TALKS IAEA and IRAN

     Iran and IAEA sign joint statement to resolve outstanding issues

     Iran issued the needed permission for the IAEA to start inspection of its heavy water reactor IR-40 in Arak and Gachin Uranium Mine, two bones of contention in Iran-IAEA debates in recent years.

     The permission was issued within the framework of an agreement between Iran and the IAEA.

     “The voluntary measure was adopted by the permission of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to show Iran’s good will, (otherwise) Iran has not such duty on the basis of the safeguards undertakings,” Salehi told reporters after meeting Amano.

     He said that the permission was issued after Iran and the IAEA agreed on a road map for cooperation and the Iranian government’s new approach to voluntarily increase cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

     Haaretz: UN nuclear agency, Iran strike deal on inspection of Arak reactor

   • 

     Oui on November 11, 2013 at 3:30 pm

     .
     You cannot revoke Iran’s rights to enrich uranium for civilian nuclear energy.

     How the west drew the line at Iranian uranium enrichment

     (Guardian) – A meeting in a Geneva hotel room between John Kerry and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, led to an 11th-hour toughening of the western position on Iran’s nuclear programme that was unacceptable to Iranian negotiators, according to western officials.

     In the discussion in the US secretary of state’s room at the Geneva InterContinental, Fabius insisted on two key points in the drafting of an interim agreement with Iran: there should be no guarantees of Iran’s right to enrich uranium in the agreement’s preamble; and work would have to stop on a heavy-water nuclear reactor [IR-40 in Arak]. Iran is building the Arak reactor, capable of producing plutonium, about 130 miles south-west of Tehran.

     The Saturday-night meeting was a late turning point in three days of intense talks among foreign ministers that resulted only in a decision to resume negotiations at a lower level in Geneva next week.

     Issue of Arak reactor is quite bogus because it is not a proliferation problem

     ○ New French FM Laurent Fabius echoes former President Nicolas Sarkozy regarding Israel
     ○ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the foreign minister of France, Laurent Fabius – Aug. 25, 2013

10. 

    Oui on November 10, 2013 at 11:49 pm

    .

    Syrian opposition agrees to attend Geneva talks with preconditions – SNC statement

    (RT) – The Western-backed Syrian opposition group has agreed to participate international peace talks, outlining conditions that must be met before they attend in Geneva, the group said in a statement.

    The Syrian National Council is demanding a guarantee that relief agencies will get unhindered access to rebel-held areas of Syria, Reuters reports citing the statement. The group also demanded the release of political prisoners.

    The creation of transitional ruling body in which the current government should not have a role remains the opposition’s main goal. “All we can do is hope is that these talks will end with the departure of Bashar al-Assad,” said Adib Shishakly, a member of the coalition told Reuters.

    On Saturday, the SNC leader Ahmad Jarba indicated that the group was willing to take part in the talks if the West kept its promise to organize `humanitarian aid’ corridors to the rebel forces on the ground. A promise made in a closed meeting in London by John Kerry, Mr Hague and the other Friends of Syria ministers.

    The Friends of Syria group and opposition leaders produced a resolution after a meeting in October, stating that President Bashar Assad has no role in the country’s future and pledging support for the Syrian “moderate opposition” which they claimed to separate from the Islamic hard-liners increasingly dominating the forces fighting against the Syrian government.

    Following that meeting, Moscow blamed the group for attempting to revise key elements of the Geneva communique of 2012 – the only platform to achieve a political settlement in Syria – and undermine the Geneva 2 conference.

    Washington Post: SNC will attend Geneva talks if conditions are met