U.S. urging talks while 'holding gun' at Iran: Iranian military official

[Five Ten Nineteen]

Source: Reuters

MAY 17, 2019 / 6:13 AM / UPDATED 22 MINUTES AGO

DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Iranian military official has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of dishonesty, saying Washington is calling for talks while “holding a gun” at Tehran, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported on Friday.

Trump has said publicly he wants to pursue a diplomatic route with Iran after withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, moving to cut off all Iranian oil exports this month while beefing up the U.S. Navy and Air Force presence in the Gulf.

Iran has dismissed the U.S. military build up as “psychological warfare” designed to intimidate it, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week that Tehran would not negotiate with the United States on another nuclear deal and such talks would be “poison”.

“The actions of American leaders in exerting pressure and launching sanctions ... while speaking of talks, is like holding a gun at someone and asking for friendship and negotiations,” Mehr quoted Rasoul Sanai-Rad, a political deputy of the armed forces command, as saying.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-military/u-s-urging-talks-while-holding-gun-at-iran-iranian-military-official-idUSKCN1SN0TH?il=0

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Had a dream
It was War
And they couldn't tell me what it was for
But it was something they could lie about
Something we could die about
YOU know!

Roger Hodgson, co-founder of Supertramp, "Sleeping With The Enemy"

[C_U_L8R]

1. Truth is Trump doesn't want talks or a treaty or peace of any kind

He wants a made-for-tv war to fluff up his idiot base.

[docgee]

2. I'm waiting for the day other countries start sanctions against the US.

[karynnj]

3. Senators Chris Murphy and Brian Schatz had a hilarious twitter response

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

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Link to tweet

Link to tweet

This is a great summary.

One other comment about the WSJ and NYT articles that Trump really wants diplomacy - he really may want it both ways. He wants to continue the right wing claim that Obama was weak and got a bad deal. He may feel that if saner forces - EU etc manage to get Trump and Iran to agree to the original deal with some minor or even cosmetic differences, Trump declares he is the master negotiator. If he fails, it is because the deep state (John Kerry in particular) made Iran not negotiate. (Ignore that Kerry has called for Trump to use diplomacy here and elsewhere!)

[Maxheader]

4. We will see how crazy stumpy is when someone flys a drone into the side of the lincoln..

I picture the whole washington gop gapped tooth hillbilly crowd salivating about a war...