EXCLUSIVE Team Obama Tells Iran: Don't Escalate, Don't Take Trump's Bait

[DonViejo]

As tensions with Iran heat up, former Obama administration officials have quietly urged government officials there to keep their cool.

Betsy Woodruff, Erin Banco
05.31.19 5:19 AM ET

As the Trump administration sent warplanes and an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, a small group of former Obama administration officials reached out to their contacts in the Iranian government, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Their message to Iran: Don’t take Trump’s bait. Stay calm.

Conversations between former Obama officials and Iranian government officials have been ongoing since November 2016. Zarif, who visits the U.S. every year for the U.N. General Assembly in New York, usually meets with lawmakers, think tanks, journalists, and former officials when he is in town.

But the recent round of conversations, which took place over the phone and in person over the last two months, came as lines of communication between the U.S. and Iran, through intermediaries in Europe and elsewhere, deteriorated.

The U.S. policy toward Iran—a scorched-earth campaign to crush the country’s economy—took a turn this month when the Trump administration, following new Iranian activity that concerned American intelligence and national-security officials, sent ships and B-52 bombers to the region in a show of force. That move fed fears of military conflict between the two powers.

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-obama-tells-iran-dont-escalate-dont-take-trumps-bait?ref=home

[brewens]

1. I was wondering if any of our real leaders might be talking through channels telling

other governments to not freak out. At this point it would be hard to expect them to trust us, but real Americans are out here waiting to take back over and try and make things right. I hope they give us a chance.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. It's a sad state of affairs when former government officials have to

intercede on behalf of the sane people in this country to keep all hell from breaking loose. I never thought we would have a President who is so profoundly mentally ill and dangerous, but that is where we are. I hope the military stands up to him if he tries to start a war in order to distract from his crimes.

[Qutzupalotl]

3. I know they mean well and want to avoid war,

but isn’t that a Logan Act violation? Granted, it’s no worse than the Republicans’ letter undermining Obama on Iran, but shouldn’t we try to be better than “no worse”?

[stillcool]

4. i think that's the point of the article..

no names, dates...just mentions of 'conversations'. It's a chain-yanker.

Conversations of this nature sometimes generate fervid conversations about an obscure piece of legislation, passed in 1799 and never once enforced, called the Logan Act. It’s been more than 150 years since anyone has been charged with breaking it, as History Today notes, and nobody has ever been convicted over it.

The Logan Act bars people outside the U.S. government from engaging in unauthorized diplomatic talks on its behalf. When Gen. Michael Flynn spoke with Russian officials between Election Day 2016 and Inauguration Day to urge them not to retaliate against new U.S. sanctions, some suggested he could be charged with breaking that law (he wasn’t). The likelihood that former Obama officials could face such a charge is basically zero percent; the likelihood that some of their critics may bring it up, on the other hand, is reasonably high.

[rownesheck]

5. We are in desperate times.

Forget the Logan act when millions of people's lives are at stake because Yosemite Sam and Orange Dipshit feel they have to prove something because they have small penis issues.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. Now Trumpy et al are going to scream about interference.