NewsTrust - Iran Nuclear Program - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Obama's Diplomacy in Iran: what went right, and what didn't

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By David Shorr - Mar. 13 (Review) - The Obama administration started out by making strong diplomatic gestures to Iran, briefly yielding a fuel-swap deal in which Iran seemed interested. But as talks dissolved, the administration soon found itself wedded to steadily escalating sanctions with little maneuvering room left to pursue negotiations -- all while Iran ran down the clock and continued to enrich uranium. Parsi's book alternately challenges and praises the president -- mostly challenges -- while presenting a behind-the-scenes look at one of the greatest threats facing the United States as well as the acumen and dexterity it demands.

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Prepping Americans for an Iran War

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By William Blum - Dec. 03 (Opinion) - There’s no letup, is there? The preparation of the American mind, the world mind, for the next gala performance of D&D — Death and Destruction. The Bunker Buster bombs are now 30,000 pounds each one, six times as heavy as the previous delightful model.. But the Masters of War still want to be loved; they need for you to believe them when they say they have no choice, that Iran is the latest threat to life as we know it, no time to waste.

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Is Israel a rogue state?

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Power Line - By Scott Johnson - Nov. 11 (Opinion) - The Cambridge Union recently debated the proposition: "The House believes that Israel is a rogue state." Nineteen-year-old Gabriel Latner is a Cambridge University law student who joined the team arguing the affirmative of the proposition. Israpundit reports that Latner seized the opportunity to take on others on his side including Lauren Booth (the Islamic convert and sister of Cherie Blair) to argue in favor of Israel. Latner won the debate for the opposing side. He received a standing ovation from the majority of the room. Irish newspaper columnist Kevin Myers calls Latner's speech "the most brilliantly audacious defence of Israel since Moses parted the Red Sea."

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Arab public has different view of nuclear Iran

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

todayszaman.com - By ABDULHAMiT BiLiCi - Aug. 18 (Opinion) - One of the steps America took during the Bush administration to improve relations with the Muslim world was to appoint a representative to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The person appointed was a friend of Bush’s from Texas named Sada Cumber. It was not a bad idea for Bush to take a step, albeit a symbolic one, after the occupation of Iraq, the Abu Ghraib scandal and the Guantanamo nightmare. Of course it was odd that the person who was appointed to mend relations with the Muslim world, of which 85 percent is Sunni, belonged to the Ismaili sect. But during his term Cumber, who was born in Pakistan, traveled to Muslim countries, listened to problems and fostered solutions. For example, he brought the torment that people face at borders when traveling to America to the administration’s agenda.

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Nuclear Iran: Is There An Option?

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Jun. 18 (Opinion) - As for making a dent in Iran's import- export traffic of energy products, the sanctions will have little effect. Turkey has indicated that it plans to increase its imports of natural gas from Iran. Also, according to The Wall Street Journal, oil traders and oil industry analysts say Iran will have little trouble finding other gasoline supplies in the Persian Gulf, where a black market in fuel products thrives, even if Washington passes measures that would penalize firms or individuals with business in the U.S. that supply gasoline to Iran.

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US/Israel Challenged on Iran

Thu, 20 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Rayb McGovern - May. 20 (Comment) - As a former CIA analyst, I hope that Obama would have the presence of mind to order a fast-track special National Intelligence Estimate on the implications of the Iran-Brazil-Turkey agreement for U.S. national interests and those of the countries of the Middle East.

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Itching to Fight Another Muslim Enemy

Mon, 17 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - May. 17 (Comment) - If you read the major American newspapers or watch the propaganda on cable TV, it’s pretty clear that the U.S. foreign policy Establishment is again spoiling for a fight, this time in Iran.

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Salehi: Iran would back Down if West supplies LEU; Khamenei vows self-defense against 'US-backed saboteurs'

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Feb. 09 (Opinion) - The USG Open Source Center translated remarks of Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, regarding Sunday's announcement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran would seek to enrich uranium to the 19.75% necessary to produce medical isotopes. Salehi represented the announcement as a way for Iran to put pressure on the West to provide the low enriched uranium for its medical reactor on Iran's terms.

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More Nuclear Scaremongering about Iran from Clinton

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Feb. 08 (Opinion) - To put Iran in the same category as North Korea in 2010 and to make it among the primary 'threats' challenging the United States is just bizarre. The US intelligence establishment continues to doubt that Iran has or wants a nuclear weapons program. Tehran does have a nuclear enrichment program, which is permitted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran allows United Nations inspections of it nuclear facilities. Although Iran is not as transparent as the UN International Atomic Energy Agency would like, there is no dispositive evidence of a weapons program. For the Secretary of State to frame Iran as she did is just muddled or dishonest.

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Iran and the Goldilocks Principle: Why Kuperman is Completely Wrong and the Leveretts are Only Partly Right and There are no Tunnel Bombs

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Jan. 07 (Opinion) - In the past three weeks, Iran observers have been baffled by the range of opinion appearing on the op-ed page of The New York Times concerning Iran, and the uneven reporting on that country. Before the holidays, Alan Kuperman, a political scientist at the University of Texas Austin, called for bombing Iran-- becoming the first respectable academic in the US to take a position usually associated with discredited angry Neoconservatives such as John Bolton. Kuperman's argument is wrong in almost every particular, and that the NYT editors published it was considered alarming by many Iranists. We all remember how the newspaper printed a long series of bald-faced lies and easily disproved fantasies about 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq in 2002, which certainly helped legitimate and pave the way for war on that country. We worried that the fix was in against Iran.

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Obama's foreign policy report card

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Juan Cole - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - Why can't the administration of President Barack Obama get the word out about its policy successes? President Obama campaigned on an ambitious platform of withdrawing from Iraq, engaging Iran on its nuclear program and persuading the Pakistani government to take on the Taliban and al-Qaida. Despite the charge by critics from both the right and the left in the wake of his winning the Nobel Peace Prize that he has accomplished little so far, in fact he has already set in motion significant change on several of these fronts -- despite the enormous domestic tasks that have inevitably preoccupied his administration. Yet you'd never hear about these successes from the mainstream media.

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On Tape: Bolton Backs Israeli Nuke Strike On Iran?

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Nick Baumann - Oct. 17 (Comment) - During a little-noticed speech at the University of Chicago on Tuesday, John Bolton suggested a way to resolve the controversy over Iran?s nuclear program: Israel should launch a nuclear attack on Iran. Speaking to the University Republicans and the Chicago Friends of Israel, Bolton, George W. Bush?s hawkish ambassador to the United Nations, said, "Unless Israel is prepared to use nuclear weapons against Iran?s program, Iran will have nuclear weapons in the very near future." Bolton has repeatedly declared that Iran?s nuclear program is unacceptable. Given that he holds this position, his contention that the only way to prevent a nuclear Iran is with a nuclear attack appears to be a backdoor endorsement of just such a strike. ...

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Obama pwns Bush-Cheney on Iran; First day of Talks Yields Significant Confidence-Building Steps

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Oct. 02 (Opinion) - For 8 years, Bush-Cheney practiced what I call "belligerent Ostrichism" toward Iran. They refused to talk to Tehran. They wanted to ratchet up sanctions on it. Bush sent 2 aircraft carriers to the Gulf to menace Iran. Bush?s spokesmen professed themselves afraid of Iran?s unarmed little speedboats in the Gulf. Aside from issuing threats to attack and destroy Iran the way they did Iraq, Bush-Cheney had nothing else to say on the matter. During the 8 years, Iran went from being able to enrich to .2% to being able to enrich to 3.8%, and increased its stock of centrifuges significantly. Bush-Cheney gesticulated and grimaced and fainted away at the horror of it all, but they accomplished diddly-squat. Barack Obama pwned Bush-Cheney in one day, and ...

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Top Things you Think You Know about Iran that are not True

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Oct. 01 (Opinion) - Thursday is a fateful day for the world, as the US, other members of the United Nations Security Council, and Germany meet in Geneva with Iran in a bid to resolve outstanding issues. Although Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had earlier attempted to put the nuclear issue off the bargaining table, this rhetorical flourish was a mere opening gambit and nuclear issues will certainly dominate the talks. As Henry Kissinger pointed out, these talks are just beginning and there are highly unlikely to be any breakthroughs for a very long time. Diplomacy is a marathon, not a sprint.But on this occasion, I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some things that people tend to think they know about Iran, but for which the evidence is shaky.Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the USReality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.Reality: Iran's military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.Belief: Iran has threatened to attack Israel militarily and to "wipe it off the map."Reality: No Iranian leader in the executive has threatened an aggressive act of war on Israel, since this would contradict the doctrine of 'no first strike' to which the country has adhered. The Iranian president has explicitly said that Iran is not a threat to any country, including Israel. Belief: But didn't President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten to 'wipe Israel off the map?'Reality: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that "this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" (in rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Qods bayad as safheh-e ruzgar mahv shavad). This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all.Belief: But aren't Iranians Holocaust deniers?Actuality: Some are, some aren't. Former president Mohammad Khatami has castigated Ahmadinejad for questioning the full extent of the Holocaust, which he called "the crime of Nazism." Many educated Iranians in the regime are perfectly aware of the horrors of the Holocaust. In any case, despite what propagandists imply, neither Holocaust denial (as wicked as that is) nor calling Israel names is the same thing as pledging to attack it militarily.Belief: Iran is like North Korea in having an active nuclear weapons program, and is the same sort of threat to the world.Actuality: Iran has a nuclear enrichment site at Natanz near Isfahan where it says it is trying to produce fuel for future civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity. All Iranian leaders deny that this site is for weapons production, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly inspected it and found no weapons program. Iran is not being completely transparent, generating some doubts, but all the evidence the IAEA and the CIA can gather points to there not being a weapons program. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by 16 US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed with fair confidence that Iran has no nuclear weapons research program. This assessment was based on debriefings of defecting nuclear scientists, as well as on the documents they brought out, in addition to US signals intelligence from Iran. While Germany, Israel and recently the UK intelligence is more suspicious of Iranian intentions, all of them were badly wrong about Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction and Germany in particular was taken in by Curveball, a drunk Iraqi braggart.Belief: The West recently discovered a secret Iranian nuclear weapons plant in a mountain near Qom.Actuality: Iran announced Monday a week ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had begun work on a second, civilian nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. There are no nuclear materials at the site and it has not gone hot, so technically Iran is not in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it did break its word to the IAEA that it would immediately inform the UN of any work on a new facility. Iran has pledged to allow the site to be inspected regularly by the IAEA, and if it honors the pledge, as it largely has at the Natanz plant, then Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons at the site, since that would be detected by the inspectors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted on Sunday that Iran could not produce nuclear weapons at Natanz precisely because it is being inspected. Yet American hawks have repeatedly demanded a strike on Natanz.Belief: The world should sanction Iran not only because of its nuclear enrichment research program but also because the current regime stole June's presidential election and brutally repressed the subsequent demonstrations.Actuality: Iran's reform movement is dead set against increased sanctions on Iran, which likely would not affect the regime, and would harm ordinary Iranians.Belief: Isn't the Iranian regime irrational and crazed, so that a doctrine of mutally assured destruction just would not work with them?Actuality: Iranian politicians are rational actors. If they were madmen, why haven't they invaded any of their neighbors? Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded both Iran and Kuwait. Israel invaded its neighbors more than once. In contrast, Iran has not started any wars. Demonizing people by calling them unbalanced is an old propaganda trick. The US elite was once unalterably opposed to China having nuclear science because they believed the Chinese are intrinsically irrational. This kind of talk is a form of racism. Belief: The international community would not have put sanctions on Iran, and would not be so worried, if it were not a gathering nuclear threat.Actuality: The centrifuge technology that Iran is using to enrich uranium is open-ended. In the old days, you could tell which countries might want a nuclear bomb by whether they were building light water reactors (unsuitable for bomb-making) or heavy-water reactors (could be used to make a bomb). But with centrifuges, once you can enrich to 5% to fuel a civilian reactor, you could theoretically feed the material back through many times and enrich to 90% for a bomb. However, as long as centrifuge plants are being actively inspected, they cannot be used to make a bomb. The two danger signals would be if Iran threw out the inspectors or if it found a way to create a secret facility. The latter task would be extremely difficult, however, as demonstrated by the CIA's discovery of the Qom facility construction in 2006 from satellite photos. Nuclear installations, especially centrifuge ones, consume a great deal of water, construction materiel, and so forth, so that constructing one in secret is a tall order. In any case, you can't attack and destroy a country because you have an intuition that they might be doing something illegal. You need some kind of proof. Moreover, Israel, Pakistan and India are all much worse citizens of the globe than Iran, since they refused to sign the NPT and then went for broke to get a bomb; and nothing at all has been done to any of them by the UNSC.End/ (Not Continued)

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US Press Corps Fails Again on Iran

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - Sep. 30 (Opinion) - the most dangerous parallel between the misreporting on Iraq and the current hysteria about Iran may be that major U.S. news outlets, especially the New York Times and the Washington Post, continue to paint the disputes in black and white and leave shades of gray out of the frame. In doing so, these news organizations again are casting aside their own rules about objectivity and balance.

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The Making of a New Global Strategy

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Strategic Paradigms - By Ehsan Ahrari - Feb. 08 (Opinion) - The administration of President Barack H. Obama has started the highly intricate process of developing its own strategy with a bang in different regions of the world. Here are the ingredients of that strategy: multilateralism, looking for a fresh start—which promises to be substantially different from the preceding administration—search for common ground involving Russia, invitation of negotiations with America’s traditional adversaries like Iran and North Korea, and at least the initial hope that approaches toward Palestine, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are likely to be radically different than the one the Bush administration pursued unsuccessfully. This is a huge agenda. But Obama’s administration has the enormous characteristic of freshness, metaphorically as well as substantively, in the sense that it is not carrying any baggage that had so infamously bogged down George W. Bush in an ostensibly endless inertia.

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President-elect's Queries to Briefers

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern - Nov. 07 (Opinion) - He asked what I would tell President-elect Barack Obama if I were Mike Morell, the chief CIA analyst assigned to brief Obama daily. What fun, I thought. On more sober reflection, it seemed more useful to prepare questions of the kind President-elect Obama might wish to ask Morell, since the briefings are supposed to be a two-way street. Obama is no shrinking violet. Just the same, it may be useful to warn him not to succumb to the particular brand of “shock and awe” that can be induced by ostensibly sexy intelligence to color reactions of briefees, including presidents. I have seen it happen.

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"The Majority of the World Supports Iran"

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Subrata Ghoshroy - Oct. 08 (Interview) - In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview, Chomsky discusses the global politics of Iran's and India's attempts to become nuclear powers.

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