Monday, January 26, 2015

Eye on Iran: Iran Lawmakers Drafting Law on Nuclear Enrichment Hike








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AFP: "Iran's parliament has started to draft a law that would allow the country's nuclear scientists to intensify their uranium enrichment, a step that could complicate ongoing talks with world powers. The move, announced Saturday by parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, comes after US lawmakers said they were planning legislation that could place new sanctions on Iran... Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, committee spokesman in Tehran, told the ISNA news agency that draft legislation was underway. 'This bill will allow the government to continue enrichment, using new generation centrifuges,' he said, referring to more modern machines that would speed up production. 'The parliament's nuclear committee is working on the technical issues and details of this draft,' he added." http://t.uani.com/1zMvVrH

AFP: "Iran warned the US Congress on Friday against imposing new sanctions, saying this would lead to a collapse of negotiations over Iran's controversial nuclear programme. 'We have an agreement that has the prospect of reaching a comprehensive agreement,' Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a meeting of political and business leaders in Davos. 'If someone comes to torpedo (the agreement), I believe (the person or entity) should be isolated by the international community, whether it's the US Congress or anybody else. Now is the time for the international community to stand firm against (the threat of new sanctions)that will unravel an extremely important achievement.' Any new sanctions passed by the US Congress can be vetoed by President Barack Obama, but Zarif warned that if Iran's president does not have similar powers over parliament. 'In our constitution, our president does not have the power to veto parliament (which has) threatened publicly' to take retaliatory action against any move by Congress. 'They will adopt something requiring the government... to increase our (uranium) enrichment,' said Zarif." http://t.uani.com/1D8p2io

NYT: "Iranian protesters, encouraged by state-sanctioned Friday Prayer leaders, condemned the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo for publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. In cities across Iran, tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Friday in organized protests, shouting slogans and chanting 'death' to France, Israel, Britain and Charlie Hebdo, and burning flags... 'The attack on Charlie Hebdo was a pretext for attacking Islam,' Kazem Sadeghi, a prayer leader in Tehran, said Friday. 'But fortunately the attack led to unity among Muslims who all condemned the desecration of our holy prophet.'" http://t.uani.com/1tggHZV

   
Nuclear Program & Negotiations

AFP: "US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met for bilateral talks Friday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, an official source told AFP. 'Secretary Kerry and Iranian foreign minister Zarif just concluded an hour-long meeting in Davos,' a State Department source said, without providing more details. The top-level meeting occurred as Iranian and US diplomats officially resumed talks in Switzerland on intensifying efforts to reach a deal on the future of Tehran's nuclear programme. Two days of meetings between Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and top US negotiator Wendy Sherman began Friday morning in Zurich. EU political director Helga Schmid was also taking part in the meetings, he added." http://t.uani.com/1uuuHud

Reuters: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended on Sunday a planned speech to the U.S. Congress about Iran, saying he had a moral obligation to speak out on an issue that poses a mortal threat to Israel... Briefing his cabinet on the March 3 speech to a joint meeting of Congress, Netanyahu said his priority was to urge the United States and other powers not to negotiate an Iranian nuclear deal that might endanger Israel. 'In coming weeks, the powers are liable to reach a framework agreement with Iran, an agreement liable to leave Iran as a nuclear threshold state,' he said in remarks carried by Israeli broadcasters. 'As prime minister of Israel, I am obligated to make every effort to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weaponry that will be aimed at the State of Israel. This effort is global and I will go anywhere I am invited to make the State of Israel's case and defend its future and existence.' John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, invited Netanyahu without informing the Obama administration, in what the White House deemed a breach of protocol." http://t.uani.com/1JrKmDr

Reuters: "Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is to appear before parliament following controversy over a promenade with his American counterpart during intense nuclear negotiations in Geneva, state media reported on Sunday. Zarif, who leads Tehran's talks with 'P5+1' - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - had a 15-minute walk down Geneva sidewalks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during discussions on Jan. 14 aimed at reaching a settlement of the 12-year nuclear dispute between Iran and the West. Media images of the top diplomats from old adversaries strolling together in a foreign land provoked an outcry among Iranian hard-liners deeply wary of rapprochement with the 'Great Satan'. On Friday, conservative-leaning prayer leaders heaped scorn on Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani for the 'diplomatic slip-up' and newspapers said 21 members of parliament had signed a petition to call in the moderate minister to provide an explanation. 'Given the Great Satan's endless demands and sabotage during the course of the nuclear negotiations, there is no conceivable ground for intimacy between the foreign ministers of Iran and America,' said the petition published in hard-line Fars News." http://t.uani.com/1uPmJ4G

Congressional Sanctions

Al-Monitor: "The Senate Banking Committee is once again on track to vote on Iran sanctions legislation after an unexpected delay last week. The markup, scheduled for Jan. 29, will provide the clearest indication to date of where Congress stands... The bill that has been scheduled for a vote was co-authored by Banking members Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and would escalate sanctions on Iran if no deal is reached by July 6. Democratic support for the bill has been steadily evaporating in the wake of intense lobbying from the White House, while fellow Banking member Bob Corker, R-Tenn., is pushing competing legislation that would instead require Congress to sign off on a final deal. The markup will be preceded by a Banking hearing on the issue Jan. 27 featuring the State Department's No. 2, Antony Blinken, and Treasury sanctions chief David Cohen. They will be followed by experts from two pro-Israel think tanks, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The House Foreign Affairs meanwhile will hold its first Iran hearing of the new Congress on Jan. 27. The hearing won't feature any government officials - only experts from a range of think tanks - but may offer some fresh insight into the committee's plans for Iran-related legislation in the new Congress." http://t.uani.com/1yjzwH5

Star-Ledger: "By Thursday, Menendez cooled down a bit. In an interview, he said he was considering putting off his clash with Obama over Iran by delaying until March his bill that would force Obama to turn up the heat against Tehran by preparing a new round of tougher sanctions... For years, Menendez has co-sponsored bills to toughen sanctions, which Obama concedes are the only reason Tehran is even talking. 'I hate to say it but this administration at various times when I have moved on sanctions legislation has opposed them, and now heralds them as the reason (Iran) is at the table,' Menendez says... Menendez is basically offering to play a game of good-cop, bad-cop. While Obama plays nice, Congress can strengthen his hand by growling in the next room. Putting sanction in place takes months, he says, so having this contingency in place will give Obama a running start if no deal materializes by the June deadline. 'If sanctions aren't in place, his only options will be a military option, or to accept a nuclear-armed Iran," he says. 'By having sanction in place, you have a third way.'" http://t.uani.com/1yI62aF

Human Rights

IHR: "Ten prisoners were hanged in the prison of Kerman early Sunday morning 25 January. All the prisoners were convicted of drug-related charges. None of the executions have been announced by the official Iranian sources... According to IHR sources there have been three group executions on Sunday January 18, Tuesday January 20 and Thursday January 22 in the prison of Kerman. IHR is investigating about the details around these executions. In December 2014 IHR reported about the unannounced mass-executions of drug-convicts in the prison of Kerman." http://t.uani.com/1teTjf8

NYT: "Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Iran correspondent, who was imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement six months ago for unspecified reasons, has been moved recently and has a cellmate, his brother said Friday. The brother, Ali Rezaian, also said that Jason Rezaian's wife, Yeganeh Salehi, who was imprisoned at the same time for unspecified reasons but released on bail after a month, had been permitted for the first time to consult a lawyer. Reached by telephone in California, where he lives, Ali Rezaian said he had learned of the developments in recent days. Although the changes suggested that Mr. Rezaian's conditions had eased, it was unclear whether they signaled some movement in the prosecutions of Mr. Rezaian and his wife, which remain shrouded in secrecy." http://t.uani.com/1ylisAp

AFP: "Asia's football body does not oppose Iranian laws banning women from stadiums, a senior official told AFP on Friday, after thousands flocked to watch the team at the Asian Cup. Enthusiastic male and female Iran fans have provided a colourful spectacle at the tournament in Australia, in scenes which are forbidden in the Islamic republic. Asian Football Confederation (AFC) general secretary Alex Soosay said the body respects Iranian rules banning women from watching male athletes, an increasing source of controversy. 'We're very broad-minded,' Soosay said in an interview in Sydney. 'In Australia, there's a big Iranian community and you can't stop them from coming to the stadium because there's no restrictions here. Whereas in Iran, there has been some restrictions of women entering the stadium and watching a football match.' He added the AFC was 'happy' to respect Iranian laws. The divide between the situation in Iran and Australia was laid bare when Iranian players were warned against taking 'selfie' pictures with female fans." http://t.uani.com/1tezmoX

Foreign Affairs

AFP: "Iran's foreign minister arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for a rare visit to the regional rival, bringing condolences after the death of King Abdullah, television pictures showed. Saudi officials greeted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after he landed at a military airport in the capital Riyadh... In August last year Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. That was the first high-level Iranian visit to the kingdom since Hassan Rouhani became the Islamic republic's president a year earlier." http://t.uani.com/1L9TIp8

LAT: "In Iran, Saudi Arabia's longtime rival for influence in the Middle East, there is little expectation that King Abdullah's death will alter the deep enmity that has helped fuel hostilities and proxy battles throughout the region, including in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain. 'In the near future, there will not be any letup between the two adversaries,' said Nader Karimi Juni, a political analyst in Tehran. 'Iran and Saudi Arabia will never be friends. Each country has a hostile ideology toward the other.'" http://t.uani.com/1teA19R

Al-Monitor: "On Dec. 20, Iran appointed an ambassador to Morocco, five years after diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed at the instigation of Morocco. Ongoing contacts between the two countries' foreign ministers since February 2014 suggest that Morocco will soon reciprocate and name its own ambassador. Iran officially announced the appointment of Mohammad Taghi Moayed, a career diplomat familiar with the Maghreb who previously served in Tunisia. Rabat, however, has been more discreet about its rapprochement with the Islamic Republic. The kingdom has put conditions on resuming relations with Tehran; one of them is to obtain guarantees that Iran will refrain from proselytizing its own brand of Shiite Islam. Suspected religious activism, especially in northern Morocco, was one of the reasons that led Rabat to break diplomatic relations with Iran in March 2009. Morocco also cited Iran's interference in the affairs of Bahrain, an allied Sunni monarchy ruling over a majority of Shiites." http://t.uani.com/1L9QBgQ

Opinion & Analysis

Dennis Ross, Eric Edelman & Ray Takeyh in Politico: "he nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran appear stalemated. Meanwhile Iran is on the march in the Middle East with its forces supporting the coup in Yemen, buttressing the Assad war-machine in Syria, mediating between factions in Iraq, and plotting with Hezbollah operatives on the periphery of Israel. Today, the American alliance system stands bruised and battered while our friends in the region perceive Iran and its resistance-front galloping across the region. These two simultaneous developments-the deadlock in nuclear talks and Iran's aggressive moves in the region-are not coincidental. They are intimately linked, and that should be a lesson for President Obama: The nuclear deadlock cannot be broken unless Washington reengages in the myriad of conflicts and civil wars plaguing the region, particularly now that Yemen is vulnerable and the Saudi royal family is in a state of turmoil following the death of King Abdullah on Thursday. During the course of the nuclear negotiations over the past year, Iran has been the beneficiary of a generous catalogue of concessions from the West. The 5-plus-1 has conceded to Iranian enrichment, agreed that Tehran need not scale back the number of its centrifuges significantly or dismantle any facilities and could have an industrial-size program after passage of a period of time. The Iranians have, during the course of the ten years of negotiations, grown accustomed to having their interlocutors return to the table with concessions meant to meet their mandates while offering only limited compromises of their own. Despite that no agreement was achieved at the end of the one year time-frame of the Joint Plan of Action-and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei continues to signal that Iran can live without an agreement. In fact, his negotiators are pressing for more concessions while not offering any of their own. Hence it is time to acknowledge that we need a revamped coercive strategy, one that threatens what the Islamic Republic values the most-its influence in the Middle East and its standing at home. And the pattern of concessions at the negotiating table must stop if there is to be an acceptable agreement. Iranian officials must come to understand that there will be no further concessions to reach an accord and that time is running out for negotiations. Historically, the Islamic Republic has adjusted its behavior only when its leaders saw high costs in not doing so. Iran needs to see that we are not so concerned about reaching a deal on the nuclear issue that we are indifferent to its behavior in the region... As they once more meet their Iranian counterparts next week, the American diplomats should not be afraid to walk away from the table and even suspend the talks should they continue to meet an unyielding Iran. Another way of pressing Tehran would be to publicize all the concessions that 5-plus-1 have made and how little Iran has moved. In doing so, we would expose the emptiness of the Iranian claim that all they want is civil nuclear power and clearly signal to their leadership that we don't need an agreement as much as they do and that we are prepared to create conditions for international support for increased pressure... The United States and Iran are destined to remain adversaries. It may be possible for enemies to negotiate an arms control compacts, but the path to such an accord will not come from additional concessions by the 5+1; if we want an acceptable deal at this stage, Iran's leaders need to see they have more to lose than gain by not concluding one." http://t.uani.com/18jWnNZ

Andres Oppenheimer in The Miami Herald: "Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman made headlines before his mysterious death last weekend by accusing President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of trying to cover up Iran's role in the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, but there was another - more important - leader who was at the center of the deceased prosecutor's probe: Iran's president Hassan Rouhani. In several telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges I had with Nisman over the past three years, the prosecutor told me that Rouhani was among the top Iranian officials who had 'participated in the decision' to bomb the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The attack left 85 dead and 300 wounded, and was the biggest terrorist bombing in the Western hemisphere before 9/11. According to my notes from those conversations and a detailed e-mail that Nisman sent me on July1, 2013, Nisman said that Rouhani was a top member of a special committee within Iran's VEVAK intelligence agency, known as Vijeh, which in 1994 was overseeing secret operations abroad, including the AMIA bombing. Iran has denied any responsibility for the bombing. Shortly after Rouhani was proclaimed the winner of Iran's elections on June 15, 2013, and the world media described the Iranian president-elect as a 'moderate,' I had asked Nisman whether Iran's then-president-elect was a suspect in his investigation into the AMIA bombing. Nisman told me that Rouhani was not among the eight Iranian officials whose international arrest he had requested to Interpol in 2006, but that he was a member of the committee that had planned the attack. Nisman added that a key witness, a former Iranian VIVEK official named Abolghasem Mesbahi, had testified that Rouhani was a member of the Vijeh committee at the time of the bombing. Nisman authorized me at the time to quote him as saying that 'so far, there is no element in the (AMIA) file that would allow to link Rouhani to the attack.' But he added privately that he believed in Mesbahi's testimony, and that as a member of the committee Rouhani was likely to have known of the AMIA bombing plan. On July 1, 2013, Nisman emailed me part of Mesbahi's testimony. Quoting from his 2006 request to Interpol, Nisman's email said that Mesbahi 'is a qualified witness' in the AMIA case 'because of his background within VEVAK,' and 'because of his close relations' with Iran's intelligence officials. It added that, according to Mesbahi, the Vijeh committee at the time of the 1994 bombing was presided over by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khameini, and made up among others by Rouhani, (former President Akbar Hashemi) Rafsanjani, and (former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar) Valayati. At the end of that email, Nisman added - as a personal comment apparently criticizing the fact that then-president-elect Rouhani was being described by the media as a 'moderate' who allegedly had no connections with the AMIA terrorist attack - that 'nobody is pointing out that Rouhani participated in the decision of the AMIA attack.' ... Whatever happened to him, the best homage we can pay to Nisman is remembering that he was not only accusing President Fernández for the 2013 Argentina-Iran deal, but that his main target has always been Iran's regime, including Rouhani - for the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires. At a time when the United States and other countries are negotiating a nuclear deal with the allegedly moderate Rouhani, it's a good time to remember this." http://t.uani.com/1L9K71A

WashPost Editorial: "That the mysterious death of an Argentine prosecutor has rattled President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is all too evident from the president's own postings on her Facebook page. Last Tuesday, Ms. Kirchner claimed in a rambling, 2,000-word post that Alberto Nisman, who was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head the night before he was due to publicly charge Ms. Kirchner with illicit dealings with Iran, had killed himself. On Thursday, she maintained in an even longer Facebook post that Mr. Nisman had been murdered as part of an elaborate plot against her government. In fact, Mr. Nisman appears to have compiled considerable evidence that Ms. Kirchner and several other top officials attempted to strike a deal between 2011 and 2013 under which Iran would supply Argentina with oil in exchange for food, and Ms. Kirchner's government would seek the removal from an Interpol arrest list of eight Iranians wanted in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Both the charges and the prosecutor's death call out for an independent, internationally-backed investigation. The stakes of the case extend well beyond Argentina. Mr. Nisman has alleged that senior Iranian officials were involved in planning or approving the community center bombing. According to Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald, Mr. Nisman said he had testimony that now-president Hassan Rouhani was one of the members of a committee that signed off on the attack... Ms. Kirchner, whose populist, quasi-autocratic rule has badly damaged Argentina's economy and soured its relations with the United States and other democracies, is a political lame duck who is due to leave office following an election later this year. However, she, Mr. Timerman and other close associates should be held accountable for their dealings with Iran. The cause of Mr. Nisman's death must also be established. Only a probe with international sponsorship or participation is likely to produce a credible result. If Ms. Kirchner really believes herself to be the innocent target of a conspiracy, she should welcome it." http://t.uani.com/1uOYHXn

Ed Rogers in WashPost: "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is an able, savvy leader, and he knows it is extraordinary to invite a foreign leader to speak before a joint session of Congress without informing the president.  On its face, it is inappropriate. Such a breach in diplomatic protocol shouldn't happen. It's just not a good way to conduct foreign policy. However, I suspect in this situation, it represents Boehner being at his wit's end and being beyond alarmed about the quality of diplomacy he has witnessed from this administration generally, and the trajectory of U.S. national security with regard to negotiations with Iran specifically. Boehner's apprehension is bipartisan. Very few on Capitol Hill have confidence that President Obama can negotiate an agreement that will keep Iran from having nuclear weapons. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said something in a recent Foreign Relations hearing that has been buzzing around the Internet and publications. Upon hearing from the administration about the status of reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran, he said their talking points seem to 'come straight out of Tehran.' Menendez is nothing if not a faithful Democrat and Obama ally. But, apparently, even he has thrown in the towel and is ringing the alarm bell over the very dangerous path he sees the president taking. And beyond what Menendez said, no less than Leslie Gelb wrote last week about the alarming failures of Obama and his foreign policy team. Gelb is a distinguished former correspondent for the New York Times and is currently president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.  In analyzing Obama's national security team in a piece for the Daily Beast, he had some stunning, jaw-dropping things to say.  He called for a wholesale firing of the Obama team, saying, 'Mr. Obama will have to excuse most of his inner core, especially in the White House.'  He went on to argue that, 'making the national security system work comes down to one factor, one man - Barack Obama. He's the key problem.' Even if you are a traditionalist on foreign policy, as I am, and you believe there should be wide deference to the president, you can't ignore the debacles that have occurred during the six years of Obama's term. You also can't ignore Boehner's recent drastic moves or the urgent warnings from a man like Gelb. The stakes are too high to just shrug, defer to the president and hope for the best. Americans are about to receive a strong signal from Congress on the importance of the situation with Iran - the kind of signal that only a bipartisan vote for more sanctions - over the president's objection - can provide. Let's face it, it's probably good Iran is being sent a message that the president is dealing with powerful constituencies back home who are suspicious of Iran's every move and who won't automatically acquiesce to an agreement that is acceptable to Obama.  Even though the logic is convoluted, the warnings from Gelb, the stunning comments from Menendez and Boehner's public disregard of the White House could actually strengthen the president's hand by giving the Iranians a reality check about how seriously they should take their next moves - even if they don't take Obama seriously." http://t.uani.com/1BqNbAS

Jennifer Rubin in WashPost: "Former Obama adviser Dennis Ross has been outspoken over the last year or so in urging the administration to use leverage against Iran to reach a deal on nuclear weapons that would be acceptable to the West. When the president in his State of the Union address instead threatened once again to veto sanctions, it reminded us that the administration is ignoring all outside advice and living in its own parallel universe in which reconciliation with Iran is viable.In an event hosted by the pro-Israel group JINSA this past week, Ross virtually pleaded with the administration to stop chasing a deal. 'The question is: what happens over the next few months to get a deal? It's pretty clear at this point that the Iranians don't feel much need to conclude an agreement, even though the P5+1 has demonstrated an awful lot of flexibility,' he cautioned. 'Therefore, it's important Iran not believe that we want an agreement more than they do. [...] We can't get a long-term deal unless we raise the price to Iran of refusing it' If the administration won't pass sanctions, Ross offered, why not show strength in some other way? 'We could intercept clandestine arms shipments to Houthis in Yemen or to Hamas. It would also be smart for the Administration to engage Congress to develop an understanding of the consequences for Iran of violating a final deal, ' he suggested. 'If these aren't spelled out in advance, the United States will spend valuable time debating how to respond only after violations have been detected. This would be consistent with negotiations, and would send the message to Iran that the price for cheating is clear.' This is all good advice, but misunderstands, I think, where the president is coming from. President Obama does want a deal more than Iran does. His foreign policy is in shambles, and he fears most of all yet another conflict with another Muslim country. Iran has learned it has nothing to fear from the United States and that intransigence pays dividends. Unlike Ross who cares about getting a good deal, it is obvious Obama is content to keep the interim deal in place unless Iran will finally accept a sweetheart deal of the sort Obama is only too anxious to offer. Co-panelist and former Bush defense official John Hanna concurred, saying, 'It's an irresponsible and disturbing strategy where the White House has become the main advocate for justifying Iran walking away from the talks. This demonstrates naiveté about how to conduct international negotiations: its' now Iran and the President against Congress. The President should use the threat of Congress passing sanctions - even if he vetoes them - to go to the Iranians and say I'm working with you, but we don't have much time, so make some concessions.' ... While Congress moves forward on sanctions, the president's representations of the Middle East are proving to be thoroughly wrong. He said Yemen was a success story; it's government collapsed. He claims the Islamic State has been halted; no military official or neutral observer would agree. And he insists the interim Iranian deal has 'stopped' Iran's program; numerous fact checkers have found this to be false. These glaring falsehoods confirm he is impervious to facts or willing to deliberate mislead everyone who is still listening to him. We will see if Congress can move promptly with one voice on sanctions. But this we know: The president is incapable of getting Iran to accept a good deal, so the only question is whether the interim deal is the 'new normal' or whether he reaches a deal that backs down from positions he once represented as essential to a deal." http://t.uani.com/1xWWyog

Hisham Melhem in Al Arabiya: "At a time when Russia and Iran, the biggest supporters of the Assad dictatorship in Damascus, are on the ropes economically because of steep declining oil prices, the Obama administration, mostly by inaction but also by design, is practically propping up the Assad regime. One could see the contours of a hellish Faustian deal in the making. To put it bluntly, the Obama administration today, almost four years after the Syrian people began their peaceful uprising against the depredation of an entrenched despotic rule, is desperately relying on Russian 'diplomacy' and Iranian 'muscle' to extricate it from its disastrous policy in Syria. Iran now for all intents and purposes, as one astute Iraqi Kurd told me, is 'leading from behind' the ground war against the forces of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, while the U.S. is leading the air campaign. In this new strange, but not brave Middle East, the hapless Iraqi government is more than happy to play the role of the useful mailman/middleman, delivering and receiving messages among the three frenemies. While Russia and Iran have been adamantly consistent in their support of the Assad regime, even after its outrageous use of chemical weapons against its own civilians, and after its systematic use of siege and starvation as tools of war against civilian areas under the control of the opposition, the Obama administration kept muddling through from one concession to the next compromise to another retreat and now to outright betrayal of its early promises to the Syrian people, not to mention its own solemn red lines and commitments to punish the Assad regimes for its war crimes... The U.S. is increasingly relying on Russian 'diplomacy' to contain the conflict in Syria, so that Assad's forces with considerable Iranian 'muscle', in the form of advisors, special Revolutionary Guards forces and the storm troopers of the Lebanese Hezbollah to do battle against ISIS and other radical Sunni groups. There is a diabolical unstated arrangement whereby, the Syrian air force will continue to terrorize the civilians with its barrel bombs, and at the same time sharing Syria's air space with American and other allied air forces conducting raids against ISIS forces and positions. This arrangement benefits the Syrian regime first and foremost. In Iraq, sometimes the Iranian air force shares Iraqi airspace with allied air forces in bombing ISIS positions and personnel. On the ground, the real 'deciders' in Iraq are Iranian advisors under the supervision of General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, who acts as Iran's actual Viceroy in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon." http://t.uani.com/18izxpR

      

Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com

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