Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on Muslim nations to unite and stand against hostile policies of the US and Israel.

Addressing an annual international conference on Islamic unity in Tehran, Rouhani said Saturday Muslims have no way but to remain united in order to achieve victory over the US and fight its blatant oppression.

He noted that unity and brotherhood among Islamic countries must be assumed as a duty. The Iranian president, however, pointed out that unity could not be achieved through words, stressing that it rather required collective action.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani said Iran considers Saudi Arabia as its brother and is prepared to work with the Arab kingdom to resolve issues.

The 32nd International Islamic Unity Conference began in the Iranian capital under the motto “Quds, axis of unity among Ummah,” with over 350 foreign guests from 100 countries in attendance.

The event is held annually on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) in a bid to lay the ground for stronger solidarity among Muslims and provide appropriate solutions for their problems.

Source: https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/11/24/580941/Iran-Islamic-unity-conference

The post Iran’s President Rouhani urges Muslim unity against US, Israel first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It was my job in the Obama administration to work with Iran and our allies on implementing the nuclear agreement. Based on everything I saw, President Trump is right that now is the time to be seeking new concessions.

That’s why it’s confounding that Trump decided to decertify the 2015 nuclear agreement absent any evidence of Iranian violations, instead of building on a deal that’s working and going back to the negotiating table for a broader follow-up agreement. It’s especially perplexing because Trump — perhaps unintentionally — has in past remarks and tweets suggested the outlines of a bigger and better deal: Allow U.S. companies to re-enter the Iranian market in exchange for Tehran curtailing its ballistic missile program.

The Obama administration argues that it got the best deal on offer — one limited to Iran’s nuclear program. As a diplomat charged with working with our allies to implement the agreement, I saw firsthand why we couldn’t secure agreement around Iran’s ballistic missile program, regional provocations or human rights abuses. America had global support for pressing Iran on its nuclear capability, but not for anything else. Iran was close to getting a nuclear weapon, so time was of the essence. And while the Iranians had no interest in broad negotiations, their nuclear-related concessions were so comprehensive that the international community rightly decided it was a deal worth making, even if it didn’t solve every problem with Iran.

But that was then and this is now. A lot has changed in the two years since the negotiation of the nuclear agreement. There is another deal, broader in scope, to be had.

Trump has long attacked the deal for disadvantaging American companies. During the campaign he complained, “Everybody’s involved now with Iran selling them stuff. We’re probably going to be the only ones that won’t be selling them anything.”

He’s right. The nuclear agreement allows foreign companies to do business in Iran, while American companies are still restricted by remaining U.S. sanctions.

Trump’s not alone in his frustration. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei agrees with him and has called for access to the U.S. financial system. So has Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who campaigned successfully for re-election on a second “Barjam,” the Iranian name for the nuclear deal, to promote economic prosperity.

This overlap creates the possibility of a deal.

Our remaining sanctions give Washington leverage to seek new concessions. The Iranians agreed to dismantle their nuclear program because their economy was crumbling, and sanctions relief offered a lifeline. But Rouhani oversold the economic benefits domestically. Many foreign banks and companies are still reluctant to do business with Iran because of lingering legal and political concerns. As a result, the economic impact has been modest, and Iranians are disappointed. Notwithstanding the positive trajectory on macroeconomic measures such as gross domestic product growth and foreign direct investment, the economy is still struggling to create well-paying jobs, especially for Iran’s young, educated population.

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In the early days of implementation of the nuclear agreement, it was my job to travel around the world explaining to international banks and companies that they could now invest in Iran, even encouraging them to do so. This was a surprising mission, but the Obama administration was concerned that the Iranians would withdraw from the agreement unless they saw real economic benefits from sanctions relief.

It turns out we didn’t have to worry. The Iranians were so desperate for an economic boost, they’d take whatever they could get — and still would.

Lifting the remaining U.S. sanctions would benefit American companies and workers. It would also give us room to get concessions from Iran we couldn’t get the first time, such as a broader agreement around ballistic missiles.

Trump put it well during the campaign when he said: “At the very least, we must hold Iran accountable by restructuring the terms of the previous deal. Iran has already — since the deal is in place — test-fired ballistic missiles three times. Those ballistic missiles, with a range of 1,250 miles, were designed to intimidate not only Israel, which is only 600 miles away, but also intended to frighten Europe and, someday, the United States.”

Trump is onto something. We shouldn’t walk away from the nuclear agreement, but we should get more for U.S. companies and regional security. Now is the time to go back to the negotiating table to get more for more.

YJ Fischer served as the assistant coordinator for Iran nuclear implementation at the State Department during the Obama administration. Before that, she served as chief of staff to Ambassador Tom Shannon. She co-wrote the Democratic Party platform and served on the Clinton-Kaine Transition Team.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/10/16/donald-trump-should-pursue-bigger-better-iran-deal-obama-diplomat-yj-fischer-column/766127001/

The post Donald Trump should pursue bigger, better Iran deal: Obama diplomat first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Image copyrightREUTERS

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said Washington continues to have “significant issues” with the Iran nuclear deal, after his first talks with his Iranian counterpart.

But Mr Tillerson said the talks were “very matter of fact”, and acknowledged Iran was complying with the deal.

Wednesday’s talks at the UN, involving all seven parties that negotiated the deal, focused on its implementation.

They came a day after President Donald Trump denounced the deal.

At a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr Trump described it as an “embarrassment”. He later told reporters that he had decided what to do about the agreement but would not reveal what he had decided.

He has until 15 October to decide whether to certify that Iran is complying with the deal. If he fails to do so, Congress could re-introduce sanctions dropped when the accord was implemented.

The New York Times quoted unnamed administration officials as saying Mr Trump will revisit the deal rather than scrapping it altogether.

Mr Tillerson said Mr Trump found the so-called sunset clause, which sees restrictions on Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme lifted after 2025, unacceptable.

Iran reached the landmark nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of world powers – the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany, in 2015.

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What are the different sides saying?

This was the first meeting between Mr Tillerson and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

“It was a good opportunity to meet, shake hands. The tone was very matter of fact. There was no yelling, we didn’t throw shoes at one another,” the US secretary of state said, adding that the two sides saw the agreement very differently.

“The agreement has this very concerning shortcoming that the president has mentioned as well and that is the sunset clause… and that’s something that the president simply finds unacceptable,” he said.

Warning of a repeat of North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, Mr Tillerson said Mr Trump had made it clear he did not want to leave Iran’s resumption of its programme for another administration to deal with.

Until the matter was resolved the US would fulfil its commitments, he said.

BBC UN correspondent Barbara Plett-Usher says the US’s Western allies shared Washington’s concerns but have warned against reopening the deal in order to address them.

“We already have one potential nuclear crisis. We definitely [do] not need to go into a second one,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, referring to the North Korea nuclear standoff.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the UN General Assembly that his country would not be the first to violate the agreement but would “respond decisively and resolutely to its violation by any party”.

He said it would be a “great pity” if it were destroyed by Mr Trump, who he referred to as a “rogue newcomer to international politics”.

The previous day at the same podium, Mr Trump had described Iran as a “corrupt dictatorship” and an “economically depleted rogue state” that exported violence.

Will the US abandon the nuclear deal?

Crippling economic sanctions on Iran were lifted after the International Atomic Energy Agency certified Iran had restricted sensitive nuclear activities.

Iran says it has the right to nuclear energy and insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Barack Obama’s US administration said at the time the deal would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Speaking on Wednesday, the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, said President Trump’s remarks were “not a clear signal that he plans to withdraw”.

“What it is, is a clear signal that he’s not happy with the deal,” she told CBS News in an interview.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

How is Iran curbing its nuclear programme?

Before the deal there were two uranium enrichment facilities in Iran – Natanz and Fordo – where uranium hexafluoride gas was fed into centrifuges to separate out the most fissile isotope, U-235.

Low-enriched uranium, which has a 3%-4% concentration of U-235, can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants, but it can also be enriched to the 90% needed to produce nuclear weapons.

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In July 2015, Iran had almost 20,000 centrifuges. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it will be limited to installing no more than 5,060 of the oldest and least efficient centrifuges at Natanz for 10 years.

The centrifuges at Fordo now only produce radioisotopes for use in medicine, agriculture, industry and science.

Image copyrightBBC SPORT

Iran’s uranium stockpile will also be reduced by 98% to 300kg (660lbs) for 15 years. It must also keep its level of enrichment at 3.67%.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41344366

The post Iran nuclear deal: US ‘sunset clause’ concern remains – Tillerson first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The moves come in advance of President Donald Trump’s first appearance at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

Trump plans to sign off on a new Iran policy in advance of the gathering of world leaders, but officials said he is delaying a final decision on pulling out of the 2015 deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), while exploring options for renegotiating key elements. The deadline for his decision is mid-October. Among other steps the president is seriously considering as he seeks to take a more aggressive approach to Iran is labeling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, a senior administration official said.

The new sanctions are aimed at entities and individuals tied to activities like procurement and human rights abuses, two senior administration officials and a person involved in the discussions told NBC News.

President Trump told reporters on Air Force One Thursday that he will announce a decision on the Iran nuke deal in October, but criticized it. “The Iran deal is one of the worst deals I have ever seen,” he said, adding that Iran is violating “the spirit” of the agreement and the U.S. is “not going to stand for what they are doing.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that President Trump “has made clear to those of us who are helping him develop this policy that we must take into account the totality of Iranian threats, not just Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

Iran’s foreign minister pushed back against the Trump administration’s plans on Twitter. “The #JCPOA is not (re)negotiable,” said Javad Zarif. “A ‘better deal’ is pure fantasy. About time for U.S. to stop spinning and begin complying, just like Iran.”

The sanctions relief announcement coincides with a vote on a national defense bill Thursday, which will authorize the president to waive sanctions if he determines that it is “vital to the national security interests of the United States.”

Separately, the new sanctions are part of a broader plan by the administration to clamp down on the Iranian regime ahead of the rollout of its official Iran policy. Though the policy is largely complete, officials say there is still disagreement over whether the president should withhold re-certification of the Iran nuclear deal when it comes up for review in mid-October, and over how to address aviation licenses, including the one for Iran Air, Iran’s national carrier.

Sanctions against Iran Air and four other commercial and cargo carriers were lifted in January 2016 following implementation of the nuclear agreement. The agreement also allowed Iran to purchase commercial aircraft in bulk from Airbus, Boeing and a number of other companies.

Despite the Trump administration’s continued criticism of the Iran nuclear deal, it has not taken any measures thus far to curb those aircraft sales. However, the House adopted measures Wednesday to prevent the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran, despite concerns by some Democrats that such a move undermines the nuclear agreement.

Trump has publicly contemplated withholding certification of the JCPOA, regardless of whether Iran changes its course or not. Officials say there is currently vigorous debate among Trump’s top advisers over whether the president should recertify, and if he doesn’t, what that would look like.

The administration specifically wants to renegotiate the sunset clause in the nuclear deal that has it expiring 10 years after going into effect, the provisions on inspections — the U.S. wants them to be more stringent and to expand access to Iran’s military sites — and to curtail Iran’s ballistic missile program, two senior administration officials and a person familiar with the ongoing policy discussions said.

But to do so, the U.S. needs other countries involved in the deal, which include China, France, the U.K., Russia and Germany, to be on board. The U.S. believes France and the U.K. are open to taking steps to try to compel Iran to renegotiate the nuclear deal, though Germany has not been receptive, officials said.

“The Europeans have to be with us,” a senior administration official said.

The officials say the nearly completed Iran policy addresses the need to dismantle Iranian influence in countries across the Middle East (which includes strengthened alliances with Sunni Muslim countries across the region). The policy also calls for an increased crackdown in the military activities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and strengthened ties with pro-democratic groups in Iran.

The sanctions are designed to set the stage for Trump’s appearance next week at the U.N. The issue will be a focus of the president’s first speech at the General Assembly, two officials said. It will also feature prominently in his meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday is expected to include some tough talk against Tehran, one of the officials said. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani is expected to attend the general assembly but it is unclear whether he will be present for Trump’s speech.

The official also says that Trump will call on European allies — in public and private — to take a harsher, more disciplinary approach to engaging with Iran. After JCPOA was signed, many European countries quickly seized the opportunity to capitalize on Iranian business opportunities, a move that prompted concern even some in the Obama administration.

Trump and his advisers plan to urge European allies to distance themselves from Iran until it corrects some of the issues this administration views as “fatal flaws” — a request that is being met by mixed enthusiasm among European leaders.

Trump will work to appeal to those allies through the need to cap Iranian support of radical fighters in countries like Syria, which are posing an increasing security threat to countries across Europe.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/trump-team-plans-new-sanctions-against-iran-n801286

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