Thursday, June 25, 2015

United Against Nuclear Iran Advertisement at CNN

This clip just ran during Wolf Blitzer's show on CNN, from United Against Nuclear Iran:



It's a terrible deal. See the New York Times, "IIran's Supreme Leader, Khamenei, Seems to Pull Back on Nuclear Talks":
TEHRAN — With exactly a week left before the deadline for a final agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program, the country’s supreme leader appeared to undercut several of the central agreements his negotiators have already reached with the West.

In a speech broadcast live on Iran state television, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, demanded that most sanctions be lifted before Tehran has dismantled part of its nuclear infrastructure and before international inspectors verify that the country is beginning to meet its commitments. He also ruled out any freeze on Iran’s sensitive nuclear enrichment for as long as a decade, as a preliminary understanding announced in April stipulates, and he repeated his refusal to allow inspections of Iranian military sites...
It's an awful agreement that, if implemented, would devastate U.S. national security interests.

Also at Toronto's National Post, "A nuclear deal with Iran no longer makes sense":
Iran is a theocratic state ruled by an unaccountable religious elite that operates behind an opaque wall largely impenetrable to outsiders. Reports have recently circulated in Iranian media indicating that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has undergone a series of operations for prostate cancer and may have only months to live. The situation is said to have unleashed a fierce power struggle over his successor, as opposing camps jostle for ultimate control. The fact the reports cannot be firmly verified underlines just how little certainty the West has in dealings with Tehran, and how much guesswork is involved in assessing its reliability, even at the highest international levels.

As if to confirm the unease, Iran’s parliament passed a bill on Tuesday banning access for United Nations inspectors to its military sites and nuclear scientists. Such access is essential to the proposed accord — only by an intense, unfettered ability to monitor its activities could Western powers be certain Iran was keeping its promises. Under the bill, UN experts would be allowed to carry out limited inspections under an existing agreement, but entry would be denied to military, security and non-nuclear sites, as would access to documents and scientists. At the same time, it demanded that all sanctions be lifted immediately, rather than raised gradually in tandem with evidence Tehran had met its commitments.

The bill still must be approved by the unelected Guardian Council headed by Khamenei. Any deal reached before the deadline next Tuesday could thus quickly be challenged by a new council of unknown outlook and aspirations. It would be a deal in the dark, with a shifting leadership obscured by a curtain of doubt and ambiguity...

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