The U.S., apparently backed by the other “major world powers” on its
side of the negotiating table against Iran, is insisting that Iran
mostly dismantle its nuclear programs AND remove its enriched uranium
from its territory. In return, sanctions will NOT be lifted. Rather,
they'll be “eased.” [1]
U.S. and other Western media
keeps falsely using the word “lifted.” This is misleading in the
extreme. There is NO lifting on offer. U.S. sanctions can only be LIFTED
by a vote of Congress. Obama can “suspend” them, which means a Sword of
Damocles will still be hanging over Iran's head.
Also it is
being reported that the UN sanctions will be “even harder” to lift.
(NPR, the U.S. government domestic radio propaganda network.)
The
phrase being reiterated by U.S. “diplomats” is that Iran “has to make
the hard decisions.” i.e. the decisions to virtually surrender in return
for a gradual easing of some sanctions. That is how it is described if you read far enough into various articles on the subject.
I
was just reading an article about the (U.S.-created) Ukraine “crisis”
by a Harvard professor, and was struck by this paragraph, which is
equally applicable in the Iran negotiations:
“Efforts to resolve
this crisis are also handicapped by the U.S. tendency to indulge in
'take-it-or-leave it' diplomacy. Instead of engaging in genuine
bargaining, American officials tend to tell others what to do and then
ramp up the pressure if they do not comply. Today, those who want to arm
Ukraine are demanding that Russia cease all of its activities in
Ukraine, withdraw from Crimea, and let Ukraine join the EU and/or NATO
if it wants and if it meets the membership requirements. In other words,
they expect Moscow to abandon its own interests in Ukraine, full
stop.”-
“Why Arming Kiev Is A Really, Really Bad Idea,”
Foreign Policy, February 9, 2015, by Stephen M. Walt. He's a professor
of what's called “international relations” at Harvard. That is a
euphemism for international power politics. The aim is to train people
to be apparatchiks in the U.S. imperialist structure.
The
establishment medias in the U.S. and Europe are hiding the fact that it
is the unreasonably harsh demands of the U.S. side that is the problem.
For example,here's the obfuscatory, evasive, and downright dishonest BBC
version of the negotiations:
“They're still struggling to
overcome differences on the pace and timing of lifting sanctions.” (BBC
World Service, April 1, early morning.)
Actually LIFTING
sanctions isn't even being OFFERED by the U.S. TEMPORARY SUSPENSION of
SOME sanctions is. And the “struggle” isn't some cooperative thing
they're doing together. The U.S. and the other five nations ganging up
on Iran are squeezing the Iranians as hard as they can to force them to
knuckle under. It's an adversarial struggle, like wrestlers (in this
case, six wrestlers piling on one).
The establishment
propagandists won't stop lying about the talks. Here's a propaganda
readeron on a New York City radio station that is the main NPR affiliate
there:
“talks are continuing” for Iran to surrender “in
exchange for the lifting of crippllng sanctions.” There's the lie again.
NOT lifting! It's only a temporary suspension of U.S. ones if Iran
knuckles under. (WNYC, Rich Haik, April 1, 2015, 9:30 am.)
Keep
in mind that Iran is fully within its rights to enrich uranium to 20%
under the Non-Proliferation Treaty it is a signatory to (which Israel
has never signed), which is the limit it has enriched to, and it is
obligated to notify the UN body charged with enforcement when a new
facility is opened, which it has also done. We are constantly told about
“suspicious” Iranian behavior and “unanswered questions,” but details
are not provided.
Of course the issue is that the nations
squeezing Iran (and Israel and Saudi Arabia) don't want Iran to have the
capability of building nuclear weapons. It isn't about weapons, per se.
It's about capability.
Basically the goal is to make it impossible for Iran to build nuclear weapons even if it wanted to.
Okay,
fine, but you won't even release your economic stranglehold if they
agree! Oh, they “need to make the hard decision” to agree to this.
Absurd.
1] Arrayed against Iran are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (U.S., UK, France, Russia, China) and Germany.
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