Washington, 1 Jul – US President Barack Obama warned Iran on Tuesday that there would be no nuclear deal if Tehran does not agree to “serious, rigorous” inspections of its facilities.
“The goal of the nuclear negotiations is not to rely on trust, but to set up a verifiable mechanism where we are cutting off the pathways for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon”, Obama said.
Washington, 30 Jun – There are concerns on Capitol Hill that Iran is once again pressing the Obama administration to ‘shamefully’ sacrifice Tehran’s pro-democracy opposition as a concession to the regime in the ongoing nuclear negotiations, a former member of the White House National Security Council staff has warned.
“Concessions characterize Washington’s policy in nuclear talks with Tehran. Running out of ways to concede, there are rumors the ayatollahs may ask Washington to place the main opposition that rejects clerical rule — prodemocracy organizations — on the chopping block,” Prof. Raymond Tanter of the Iran Policy Committee wrote in The Hill on Monday.
In an article published in Townhall, Ken Blackwell quotes the Russian proverb, “doveryain no proveryai,” which means “trust but verify”. It was a phrase Reagan would use many times in his dealings with Mikhail Gorbachev. The P5+1 countries that are negotiating with Iran, need to take heed of this proverb.
Ken Blackwell is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and the American Civil Rights Union and is on the board of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He is the co-author of the bestseller The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency.
Washington, 29 Jun – Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Sunday that the United States has lost its edge going into the final days of international negotiations with Iran to curbs its nuclear projects in return for an end to economic sanctions.
“I would actually fear that the Iranians have the upper hand right now,” Hayden said on ‘Fox News Sunday’.
By Hamid Yazdan Panah
I was one of thousands of young Iranians who attended traveled to Paris on June 13th in support of the Iranian opposition. The rally represented strength of Iran’s opposition, and the political coalition they have gathered to back their alternate platform for Iran. But more than that, this year the gathering was a rallying call for the Iranian youth, who are united in a simple position, the time for this regime has come to an end.
Washington, 25 Jun – Iran’s main opposition group on Thursday unveiled a detailed report on Tehran’s strategies in nuclear negotiations with the world powers, which it is purportedly pursuing to keep its nuclear infrastructure intact and retain the capability to produce a nuclear weapon.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the group which first blew the whistle on Iran’s secret uranium enrichment and heavy-water sites in 2002, provided the 28-page report titled “Can the Iran regime be trusted?” at a press conference in Washington.
US Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Iran’s foreign minister in recent days to tell him that Tehran must answer questions about whether its past atomic research was arms-related if it wants a nuclear deal, officials said.
The telephone calls came after Kerry raised eyebrows among some Western officials by saying the U.S. was “not fixated” on any past Iranian work, about which it already had “absolute knowledge,” and was looking to the future instead, Reuters reported.
Iran Focus
Washington, 25 Jun – The Obama Administration is “dropping its bottom-line by the day” in international negotiations over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme, US Rep. Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.
A report by the Associated Press on Wednesday indicated that a possible agreement is set to offer Tehran high-tech reactors and convert Iran’s underground facility at Fordo for isotope production.
“The Obama Administration is dropping its bottom-line by the day. This morning it’s reported that Fordo will be used for isotope production. While we once demanded that this hardened mountain-top facility be shut, we are now on the verge of accepting technology there that can quickly be re-engineered for bomb-making fuel”, Royce said in a statement.
London, 25 Jun – Former European lawmaker Struan Stevenson is warning that with the deadline for signing a nuclear deal with Iran looming on 30 June, US President Barack Obama seems to be committing to too many concessions and weakening the West’s approach to the Iranian regime.
Stevenson on Thursday wrote in the United Press International: “Obama has conceded that Iran’s expanding ballistic missile programme should be left out of any nuclear deal, despite the fact that they now have missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking targets in Israel, Saudi Arabia or even Europe. North Korea has been an active partner with the Iranian regime in supplying weapons technology and a recent visit by senior North Korean missile experts to Tehran has confirmed fears that the regime is accelerating the size and quality of its intercontinental ballistic missile capability. Vladimir Putin has also now decided to renew a contract to deliver S-300 surface to air missile systems to Iran”.
Iran Focus
London, 24 Jun – Iran’s main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is credited with exposing Tehran’s key nuclear sites, says it plans to unveil a detailed report on Thursday, 25 June on how Tehran has gained concessions from the West to keep its nuclear infrastructure intact.
The group’s US Representative Office plans to provide the report in an online conference at 10.30 am EST (16.30 European Time).
