London, 3 Aug – The Obama administration’s hopes of using “snapback sanctions” if Iran is caught transgressing the terms of the current nuclear deal are flawed, writes John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations. The following is the text of his op-ed in Monday’s edition of The New York Times:
The Iran Deal’s Dangerous Precedent
The New York Times
The Opinion Pages | OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Washington, 3 Aug – The recent nuclear deal between the US and Iran doesn’t address a key source of tension: the billions of dollars US courts say Iran owes to terrorism victims, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Over the past two decades, terrorism victims have filed about 100 lawsuits against Iran in US courts, accusing the government of sponsoring attacks around the world, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, the journal reported on Monday. Federal judges have awarded victims a total of approximately $45 billion, including $21.6 billion in compensatory damages, according to calculations by Crowell & Moring LLP. Iran has refused to pay.
London, 3 Aug – Renowned former New York district attorney Robert Morgenthau is urging the US Congress not to endorse a recent nuclear agreement between the major power powers and Iran, warning that the agreement does not require Iran to stop its funding of terrorism.
Morgenthau penned a piece for Reuters’ The Great Debate:
Forgotten flaw in Iran nuclear deal: It lets killers go free
London, 3 Aug – The Obama administration must provide the US Congress details of the secret “Iran side deals before US lawmakers votes on whether to endorse the major power powers’ recent nuclear agreement with Iran, two senior US lawmakers wrote on Monday in The Wall Street Journal:
Release the Secret Iran Deals
The Wall Street Journal
Iran Focus
London, 1 Aug – Authorities in Iran on Saturday hanged three prisoners in a jail in Rasht, northern Iran, the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported.
London, 1 Aug – The US Congress must know what’s in the Iran deal and the separate side agreements before it votes, the Chicago Tribune wrote in an editorial on Friday:
By Hamid Yazdan Panah
The recent Iran deal has brought much fanfare and celebration, most of which conveniently overlooks the fundamental nature of the Iranian regime. Putting aside the details of the agreement, one claim in particular has consistently been made about the nuclear deal which simply holds no weight. The claim is that the nuclear deal will somehow improve human rights in Iran, and lead to an improvement in Iranian civil society.
Washington, 30 Jul – The Obama administration’s nuclear deal earlier this month with Iran does not prevent Tehran from having a “nuclear weapons capability”, an official of the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran has said.
“A closer look at the details of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, however, provides little cause for celebration”, Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the NCRI’s Washington office, wrote on Thursday in Roll Call.
Washington, 29 Jul – United States Secretary of State John Kerry intensified efforts on Tuesday to beat back criticism of the Iran nuclear deal and convince US lawmakers that rejecting it would give Tehran a fast track to a weapon and access to billions of dollars from collapsed sanctions.
Days after tough questioning by lawmakers at an emotional Senate hearing, Kerry sharpened his response to criticism that the deal’s provisions were temporary and would not prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in the long run.
London, 29 Jul – On the first visit to Iran for 12 years by a French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius conveyed an invitation from President Francois Hollande to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani to visit France in November.
If Rouhani accepts, he will be the first Iranian president to make a state visit to France since 1999.
Fabius is seeking to smooth over any strains in the relationship created by France’s hard-line approach during negotiations that produced a nuclear agreement on 14 July, and thereby create a climate conducive to stronger economic ties.
