Reuters is reporting that a speech by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pretty much finished off any real chance of a diplomatic solution to Iran's illegal nuclear weapons program.
Among other things, Khamenei made it clear that Iran will never accept limits in producing highly enriched uranium. The reason he gave was to meet Iran's future energy needs, but this is sheer unadulterated horse manure. There are plenty of countries that have fairly developed nuclear energy programs that do not have enrichment capacity, among them Canada, Mexico, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland.
The Iranians are insisting on no limits to enrichment either to actually continue development towards nuclear weapons or to develop their program to 'breakout', a point where they could weaponize in a matter of weeks.
Khamenei also took care to mention that Iran is insistent on being self sufficient in nuclear fuel, limiting IAEA inspections significantly and vastly increasing the number of centrifuges. The Iranians have also stated repeatedly that production at their heavy water plant in Arak will continue, a nuclear facility that opens up a second avenue towards nuclear weapons by aiding in the production of plutonium and has no peacetime application whatsoever.
None of this is any news to regular members of Joshua's Army.
What we do know thus far is that Secretary of State John Kerry was either lying or simply misinformed when he said there was an actual agreement last November. The only thing his efforts achieved, just as I predicted, was to dismantle the sanctions regime that took years to put in place, gift Iran with some badly needed funds to keep the regime in place and buy the ayatollahs another 8 months to continue their quest for nuclear weapons.
What's almost comical is Reuter's contention that this somehow caught the Iranian nuclear delegation by surprise:
In his speech, which analysts compared in importance to a State of the Union address by a U.S. president, Khamenei said he had faith in his negotiating team led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his deputy, Abbas Araqchi.
Several diplomats close to the talks said the speech, which included many details about the nuclear programme and Iranian demands on it, came as a surprise to the Iranian delegation.
One Western diplomat said the delegation appeared "taken aback" by Khamenei's remarks at such a sensitive time in the nuclear negotiations - just ahead of the July 20 deadline for a deal. Two Iranian sources confirmed that assessment.
"In ostensibly expressing support for the Iranian negotiating team, close scrutiny of Khamenei's speech shows that in reality his remarks were aimed at severely curtailing his team's room for manoeuvre, making it effectively impossible to bridge gaps with the stance of the (six powers)," according to a Western intelligence analysis of the speech seen by Reuters.
As if the Iranian team isn't totally in sync with the Supreme Leader and carrying out his order to the letter? What kind of regime does Reuters imagine is running Iran?
Just to underline that, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the leader of Iran's negotiating team, welcomed the supreme leader's comments and tweeted that he and his colleagues "would not give up any of our nuclear rights."
Any 'intelligence sources' that seriously think any of this was a surprise to the Iranian diplomats in Vienna or that this speech, given less than a week before the July 20th deadline was a coincidence ought to think about seeking another line of work.This was planned, with the idea of seeing if the P5+1 powers can be fooled into extending the negotiations deadline. Given the P5+1's gullibility and appeasement thus far, it's a gambit with a decent chance of success.
This is yet another abject failure for Kerry and the Obama team. Even the Carter Administration shines by comparison.
I can only think that the president's idea here, in spite of all the rhetoric, is to allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons while downgrading America's ability to defend itself, assuming we will just have to learn to live with the biggest supporter of Islamist terrorism in the world being armed with nuclear weapons. This is the Clinton fiasco on North Korea all over again in much more dangerous hands.
And the Iranians? I imagine the West's reaction has become quite a source of humor to them.
The saddest part about all of this is the unnecessary bloodshed and destruction this will eventually lead to. The bill for this kind of appeasement, cowardice and incompetence always gets paid, and like any other overdue bill, there's always interest.
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