Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumScowcroft, Brzezinski urge Iran accord By Jim Lobe
Also in Good ReadsWASHINGTON - Two pillars of the US foreign policy establishment urged Congress on Monday to forgo any new sanctions legislation directed against Iran, warning that it will risk "undermining or even shutting down" ongoing negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, General Brent Scowcroft (retired), who served as national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H W Bush, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served in the same post under President Jimmy Carter, said that an interim agreement with Iran - the focus of critical talks the next round of which is to begin Wednesday in Geneva - "would advance the national security of the United States, Israel, and other partners in the region".
"More sanctions now as these unprecedented negotiations are just getting underway would reconfirm Iranians in their belief that the US is not prepared to make any agreement with the current government of Iran," the two men wrote. "We call on all Americans and the US Congress to stand firmly with the President in the difficult but historic negotiations with Iran."
The letter, which was made available by the New York-based Iran Project, comes amidst an increasingly strident campaign by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters in the powerful Israel lobby here to oppose an interim accord that reportedly would permit Tehran to continue enriching uranium, albeit at a low level that would not lend itself to the production of a nuclear weapon.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-191113.html
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)And the other is busy trying to juggle being reasonable people, and trying to capture the batshit insane vote in 2014.
shira
(30,109 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)The main question is whether a member of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty should be treated as having violated that treaty, without having actually done so. It's a very important question, whether a treaty can be violated on the assumption that another party to the treaty might someday decide to violate it. if so, well, that certainly changes the entire dynamic of multinational treaties, doesn't it?
Granted, we're talking about the United States here, and... well, we have something of a record when it comes to respecting treaties....
shira
(30,109 posts)Are you saying evidence is lacking or that we need to wait until it's too late....once Iran already has the nuclear capability?
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Evidence. Not editorials, not hearsay, not vague circumstantial stuff, not your own fevered imaginings, not unnamed officials stating "just trust us, okay."
shira
(30,109 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Would this be the same report that your main man Nutty Yahoo has said he was "unimpressed" with?
The IAEA report lists areas of concern. That is, areas of Iran's nuclear program could be suspicious, and warrant more information or investigation into the matter.
Concern, suspicion, and guilt are three very different concepts, as I'm sure you understand. To treat the IAEA's concerns as rock-solid proof of Iran violating the NPT is an exercise in foolishness.
Basically until there is evidence that Iran has violated the NPT, then Iran is not in violation. That's how this works, Shira.
If Israel really wants a say in what's going on, maybe they could join the NPT.
shira
(30,109 posts)Are you opposed to Iran having nuclear capability?
shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)on the never-ending escalator of demands. The IAEA pretty much had the run of the whole country in Iraq, but the Americans kept saying what about your private residences, what about your palaces. It became pretty obvious that even daily cavity searches of the whole Iraqi cabinet werent going to forestall an invasion.
I remember an episode wherein Iraq was prevented from importing tailpipes because the Americans said that they were centrifuge tubes. It turns out that they were just tail pipes. I dare say Iran remembers that as well.
Frankly, even a deal that takes Iran back to the horse and cart age is not going to make Israel happy. It all depends on whether Obama is strong enough to take the stink from them.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)The Administration needs some "success" and diplomacy is all we have left that is not some version of digging deeper. And let's face it, it should be easy to make up with Iran. Nobody on the planet in their right mind wants to be our enemy, and it has long since been clear that expediency rules the day when it comes to picking friends.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)GENEVA - In two weeks, the leaders of Israel and Italy, along with teams of their ministers, will meet for the fourth inter-governmental meeting between the countries in recent years. Italian fighter jets are participating this week in the joint "Blue Flag" exercise in the skies over the Negev Desert.
Buoyed by burgeoning commercial and security ties, relations between Jerusalem and Rome have rarely, if ever, been better. And yet, on his way to the nuclear talks in Geneva Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stopped off in Rome to meet his Italian counterpart, Emma Bonino, and discuss a wide range of regional issues. Following the meeting, Iranian sources said that Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta will be visiting Tehran. Just like that, Iran's international isolation has evaporated and not even Israel's closest allies are staying away.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.559174