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).
Iran Focus
Washington, 20 Jun – US Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chided on Friday the Obama administration over comments by Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that the US would be prepared to accept concessions regarding full disclosure of Iran’s past attempts to develop a nuclear weapon, including permitting sanctions relief before those issues are fully resolved.
Iran Focus
London, 19 June – US President Barack Obama has come under pressure from senior members of his Democratic party to protect some 2,500 Iranian dissidents affiliated with Iran’s main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), in Camp Liberty, Iraq, from attacks by militias loyal to Tehran.
“[We] demand that the people in Camp Liberty live in safety and security. No longer the targets of terrorist acts. No longer the victims of violence. No longer left unprotected,” said Senator Robert Menendez (D., N.J), a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Menendez was addressing the annual Iran Freedom rally held by the Iranian opposition on June 13 in Paris. His videotaped remarks were carried by the Washington Times on Thursday.
Iranians attending an annual grand gathering in Paris over the weekend in support of democracy in Iran commemorated also the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Iran’s main opposition group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK/PMOI).
The MEK is the main organisation in the opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), led by opposition leader Maryam Rajavi.
At the major rally in Paris there was a large memorial in memory of the founders of the MEK and the 120,000 MEK members who had been executed by Iran’s regime.
Paris, June 16 – Arab nations must act to curb Iranian influence if there is ever to be peace and stability in the Middle East, a major conference has been told.
Tehran is spreading terror and sowing sectarian discord in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, top Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi warned delegates at a conference on Sunday on religious extremism and Iran’s ‘destructive role’.
The major conference, held north of Paris at the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), drew participants such as former Algerian Prime Minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Elorabi, and former Palestinian Women’s Affairs Minister Rabiha Diab.
The Iranian people desire an end to the regime’s nuclear weapons program, the leader of Iran’s Parliament-in-exile told Fox News in an interview on Friday.
The mullahs’ regime in Iran “cannot and should not be trusted” to respect the terms of any agreement that the world powers reach with it on its nuclear projects, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said.
“Do not make more concessions to this regime. Adopt a firm policy and make it clear to the Mullahs ruling Iran that they have to abandon their nuclear weapons program,” she told Fox News in the exclusive interview.
The West’s appeasement of Iran during the nuclear talks is ‘giving legitimacy’ to an illegitimate regime, Iranian Resistance leader Maryam Rajavi has declared.
She said circumstances were ‘ripe for regime change’ but the US and other Western governments were standing in the way by pursuing a deal to halt Iran’s efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb.
She told the Washington Times newspaper: “Through their policy of appeasement and giving concessions to the regime, Western governments have served as an obstacle to the regime’s overthrow.
“In the absence of Western assistance, this regime would have fallen by now.”
