Well. the July 20th deadline of talks between Iran and the P5+1 over Iran's illegal nuclear program came and went. This was supposed to be 'Iran's last chance' according to Secretary Kerry and other assorted foreign policy leaders. So what happened? New, increased sanctions? An embargo on Iranian oil? Ominous remarks about 'consequences', perhaps?
Um, no.
The P5+1, AKA The U.S., France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany came up with something even worse. As Reuters and other sources are reporting, not only did they they give the Ayatollahs another 4 months to 'negotiate' while the centrifuges spin, but they actually bribed them with a further release of $2.5 billion in frozen funds just to keep the faux negotiations going. So not only does Iran get another 4 months for weapons development, they get the badly needed funds to continue!
You literally can't make this stuff up.
And to add to the mix, a recent Pentagon report shows Iran using the time and money it'd gotten from the West via November's agreement that wasn't really an agreement to increase its military capabilities, especially in the area of ballistic missiles.
There are really only two possibilities here. Either Secretary Kerry and the rest of the Obama team are so abysmally stupid and incompetent that they can't see how they're being played and where this is leading. Or they know, and simply don't care, but want to make it look like they at least tried to do something to prevent a nuclear Iran.
Nothing else makes sense. When the four months are up, Iran will have bought themselves an entire year's worth of time to continue their development of nuclear weapons and their delivery. Not only that, but the West has actually given them the funds to do it.
This makes Neville Chamberlain and Munich look like amateur hour.At least Chamberlain had a piece of paper from Hitler, while Kerry and President Obama don't even have that much.
This will not end well. And that is a massive understatement.
2 comments:
National Council of Resistance of Iran, a broad coalition of democratic Iranian organizations, groups, and personalities, was founded in 1981 in Tehran, Iran on the initiative of Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance. For more information visit http://www.ncr-iran.org/
I think abysmal incompetence best describes team Obama. After all they've stated repeatedly they do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. For Iran to get nuclear weapon at this point, would only serve to further humiliate these people.
Actually part of the problem is in the entire makeup of the P5+1 arrangement. The US is only 1/6 of the so called team here. It has neither the capability nor the will to cajole the other members to behave a certain way. Additionally each member of the group has divergent interests.
Russia and China are enemies of the United States. France and Germany are de facto enemies of America. At the very least, they see America as a strategic competitor and anything that harms it would viewed as good for them. As for the UK, while not an enemy on the level of France and Germany, they are certainly not a friend either as they are much closer aligned in terms of interests and outlook with France and Germany. As such, no help from them can be counted on, at least not enough to make a material difference.
The standard accepted narrative on America's conflict with Iran is that it stems from the American/British actions in overthrowing the democratically elected government back in the early 1950s in order to steal Iran's oil and the installation of the repressive and brutal regime of the Shah. As such, America "has it coming" in the eyes of most of the world. We can argue about whether the narrative is correct but it does no good at this point. Until this is addressed and concrete steps are taken to change the accepted narrative we simply are not going to get the kind of support we are going to need for any type of "get tough" approach whether it be a military option or whatever to have any chance of success.
"This will not end well. And that is a massive understatement." I tend to agree. If America's foreign policy stays on its current course, I see no way for a good ending. It will need to be changed. The best place to start would be with a redeployment of American military and intelligence assets to positions along our borders and off our coasts that make sense for our national security interests. By doing this we'd at least have a fighting chance.
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