Nearly 200 House Republicans have written to President Joe Biden warning that any nuclear deal made with Iran without Congress’ approval “will meet the same fate” as the 2015 agreement.

The letter was first published on Wednesday on the Axios news website.

The Biden administration has been working feverishly to secure an agreement via indirect nuclear talks in Vienna, but on Wednesday, an Iranian official publicly called for Congress to pledge that the US will stay in a potential deal.

The GOP letter — signed by most members of the party that polls say will run the House next year — bluntly rebuffs Iran’s request.

“We will view any agreement reached in Vienna which is not submitted to the US Senate for ratification as a treaty — including any and all secret agreements made with Iran directly or on the sidelines of official talks — as non-binding,” the GOP lawmakers wrote to Biden, according to Axios.

The letter also lays out conditions to which Iran’s leaders would likely never agree.

The Republicans promise to oppose any agreement that lifts US sanctions on Iran unless the Iranian regime has first fully dismantled all its enrichment capabilities.

They also want Iran to destroy its nuclear-capable missiles, halt all sponsorship of terrorism and pay “US federal court judgments owed to the American victims of terrorism sponsored by the Iranian regime.”

The letter was signed by 175 House Republicans, led by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Michael Waltz (R-FL). House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy signed it, as did Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).

A State Department spokesperson told Axios, “The Biden administration is not negotiating a return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA based on who is in office in Iran today or tomorrow, and we would expect the same approach from Iran.”

The letter comes as talks to revive the 2015 deal with Iran, which resumed in Vienna several days ago, continue.

On Wednesday, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, said that an agreement between Iran and world powers is closer than ever.

“After weeks of intensive talks, we are closer than ever to an agreement; nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, though,” he said, according to Reuters.

Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018.

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322418

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The US is alarmed by Iran’s progress toward obtaining an atomic weapon and hopes to resume talks soon to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, a top official in Washington said on Tuesday.

Iran’s nuclear activity was also at the center of talks in Washington between US and Israeli national security teams.

Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata and his White House counterpart Jake Sullivan joined a meeting of the US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group of diplomatic, military and intelligence agencies.

US President Joe Biden wants to reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

Talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the deal are stalled over whether Iran or the US should take the first step. “The path in Vienna for negotiations does remain open,” a senior Biden administration official said on Tuesday. “The Iranians are sending indications to a number of parties that they are preparing to come back to Vienna and of course we will have to see whether they re-engage in that process.”

Despite skepticism among Gulf states and Israel, the Biden administration believes “very strongly that the diplomatic path remains the best,” the official said.

However, the official said the White House and Israel’s new government agreed that Iran had made rapid advances since Trump quit the 2015 deal and restored sanctions. “We have a common assessment of the extent to which Iran’s nuclear program has dramatically broken out of the box,” the official said.

“The breakout time, meaning stockpiles of enriched uranium and other ways to look at this, it’s gone from about 12 months down to a period of a few months. So obviously that’s quite alarming.”

The official said the US believed diplomacy would be “the best way to put a ceiling on the program and roll back the gains that Iran has made in recent years.” However, there was no movement toward the US lifting sanctions and if diplomacy failed “there are other avenues.”

“We think the onus right now is on the Iranian side,” the official said.

Meanwhile Iran has admitted that an Israeli sabotage attack in June on a uranium centrifuge workshop caused “severe damage,” after previously claiming that it had been thwarted.

Tehran demanded that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, “clarify its position” on the attack on the plant in Karaj, about 50km from Tehran.

Source: https://www.eurasiareview.com/06102021-new-alarm-in-us-over-irans-progress-toward-nuclear-bomb/

The post New Alarm In US Over Iran’s Progress Toward Nuclear Bomb first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

US President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy at the State Department in Washington on February 4, 2021. Photo: AFP / Saul Loeb

US President Joseph R Biden rose to power promising to restore America’s purportedly ailing alliances. Allies are needed to assist the United States in curbing the rise of China, Russian aggression, and Iranian revanchism. Yet in the last several weeks, the Biden administration has gone out of its way to alienate potential allies across the world.

Slapping India while asking for its hand
China is expanding its reach into every part of Eurasia, doing its best to muscle out the United States.

American leaders from both political parties have fantasized about creating an “Asian NATO” known as the Quadrilateral Alliance (or simply “the Quad”). Japan, Australia, India, and the United States are to be the basis of the alliance, which is predicated on containing China’s rise and forcing Beijing to adhere to the “rules-based international order.”

India previously resisted American calls to form the Quad, but after China launched an unprovoked incursion on its border last year, India began looking more favorably upon the alliance.

One reason India initially resisted the Quad was New Delhi’s fierce commitment to national independence. Indian leaders have never wanted to become too dependent on any foreign nation for national security. This is an understandable outgrowth of India’s centuries-long experience as a colony of the British Empire.

So while India has striven to move closer to America’s powerful orbit in the Indo-Pacific region, its leaders have also maintained friendly relations with another American rival in Eurasia, Russia. India wants to purchase Russian-built S-400 air defense systems. Washington fears that doing so would prevent the kind of technology sharing that has enabled the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to maintain its edge.

A row between the leaders of India and the United States occurred in March, when the Biden administration reportedly threatened to impose sanctions on India if it went ahead with the purchase of the Russian air defense system. Fortunately, Washington walked back its threat. But the damage was likely already done.

Meanwhile, India seeks to compete with China for power in the aptly named Indian Ocean. China seeks to expand its reach to its west – linking up Chinese power in the Pacific with Chinese interests in Africa. India rightly has a problem with this and is countering Chinese territorial claims with its own.

To any rational thinker in the United States, these bold Indian moves should be encouraged. What’s good for China’s goose should be, after all, good for the gander in the Indo-Pacific region. Yet the Biden administration ordered an aggressive freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) to be conducted not against its Chinese rivals in the region but against its would-be ally, India.

New Delhi will be constantly looking over its geopolitical shoulder, wondering if the Americans are reliable as partners in the long run (we’re not, sadly).

With friends like these, right?

Without India in America’s corner in the Indo-Pacific region, the already daunting task of containing China’s rise will be made nearly impossible. Hectoring and embarrassing potential allies is counterproductive.

Poking allies, though, has become a hallmark of the Biden administration. Former president Donald Trump’s insults were mostly superficial. Biden’s appear to be pointed – and lasting.

Biden throws Israel under the bus
A recorded conversation between Biden administration representative (and former secretary of state under Barack Obama) John Kerry shared classified intelligence about Israeli military operations in Syria that were being directed against Iranian assets there with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.

This is all part of the ill-conceived Biden administration reset with Iran … which, as it turns out, involves Washington throwing its long-term allies in the Middle East, notably democratic Israel but also the Sunni Arab states, under the bus. The US-Israel intelligence-sharing alliance is a key advantage in America’s overall Global War on Terror. Kerry’s actions may have just undercut that relationship.

Trampling Turkey
The Biden administration has completely botched America’s already dying relationship with Turkey by declaring that the Turks did, in fact, commit the Armenian genocide during the First World War. By publicly recognizing what clearly was one of the gravest human-rights abuses of the 20th century, President Biden has put Turkey’s Islamist leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the defensive.

Turkey is a NATO ally. Losing Turkey, which is a real possibility after years of neglect and mismanagement by successive American administrations, would increase instability in the Middle East and Europe.

Further, alienating Turkey would empower Russia, China, and Iran – all three of which Turkey has been cozying up to over the last decade. While the Armenian genocide was grotesque, acknowledging it in such a public manner at this time was foolish on Biden’s part.

As a Sunni Muslim state, Turkey could prove essential in helping to contain Shiite Iran in the Middle East. Turkey could also be used to balance against Russia’s rise. These prospects are now unlikely. What’s more likely is that Turkey will chart a separate course from NATO and the United States. In so doing, Ankara will help China, Russia, and Iran solidify a Eurasian alliance of anti-American autocrats while weakening the Western alliance.

Biden’s shambolic actions have helped to empower the very same anti-American autocrats in Eurasia it seeks to contain. Today, America is defending its position atop the international system. Thus, as defender, Washington has to play the game right almost all of the time. America’s foes, however, only have to get things right one time.

Biden’s unforced errors are killing America in the grand geopolitical game of the 21st century. Let’s hope Biden can recover from his mistakes fast.

Brandon J Weichert is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower. He is a geopolitical analyst who manages The Weichert Report: World News Done Right. His work appears regularly in The Washington Times and Real Clear Politics. Weichert is a former US congressional staffer who holds an MA in statecraft and national security affairs from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, and is an associate member of New College, Oxford University.

Source: https://asiatimes.com/2021/04/biden-losing-friends-and-gaining-enemies/

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Iran and the United States will join talks in Vienna next week that aim to return all parties to the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

There will not be direct contact between Iran and the United States at the in-person meeting, according to a European Union statement issued after a virtual meeting Thursday of the countries left in the deal — China, Russia, Iran, Britain, Germany, and France.

Instead, a coordinator will make “separate contacts” with “all JCPOA participants and the United States.”

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The Trump administration pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018.

The New York Times, which first reported on the resumption of talks, quoted a U.S. official saying that the indirect talks would sketch out a sequence for the parties to return to the original agreement. Once the sequence was in place, Iranian and U.S. officials would meet directly.

President Joe Biden has said he wants a return to the deal, which traded sanctions relief for a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program. But Iran wants the Biden administration to first end the sanctions that President Donald Trump imposed after leaving the deal.

Biden wants Iran to first return to full compliance with the deal. Iran, retaliating against Trump, broke components of the agreement relating to enhanced uranium enrichment.

Israel continues to vehemently oppose the deal in any form, and Biden’s aim to rejoin it has been the first point of tension between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. official told The Times that the United States would not seek to keep in place the sanctions Trump imposed as a means of leverage. Republicans, a number of Democrats, and the centrist pro-Israel movement have pressed the Biden administration to maintain some sanctions.

The EU statement said that the virtual meeting Thursday was at the level of deputy foreign ministers. The parties “emphasized their commitment to preserve the JCPOA and discussed modalities to ensure the return to its full and effective implementation,” the statement said.

Source: https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/us-and-iran-to-join-talks-aimed-at-rejoining-nuclear-deal/

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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas – Reuters

Germany’s Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, on Wednesday urged Iran to accept diplomatic overtures from the West in order to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal, The Associated Press.

Maas accused Tehran of further undermining the transparency it is required to show under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the deal after Iran began restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities.

“In the end, Iran needs to understand that what’s important is to de-escalate and accept the offer of diplomacy that’s on the table, including from the United States,” Maas said, according to AP.

Earlier this week, the Islamic Republic ended the implementation of the Additional Protocol of the 2015 nuclear deal that allows the IAEA to carry out snap-inspections at sites not declared to the agency.

With the move, Iran effectively set a deadline to lift the sanctions imposed on it within three months, after which it said it would erase surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities.

Maas said on Wednesday the transparency required of Iran under the JCPOA wouldn’t be fulfilled during that period.

The post Germany urges Iran to accept US overtures first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech before the heads of banks, in Tehran, Iran, January 16, 2020. (Office of the Iranian Presidency via AP)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president Thursday applauded a ruling by the International Court of Justice that it can hear Iran’s case against the US seeking to end sanctions, calling it a “big victory” for the Islamic Republic.

A report by state-run IRNA news agency said President Hassan Rouhani congratulated the nation on its legal “victory” over the US.

“I congratulate the Iranian people on a very big victory the government achieved yesterday at the Hague, and this is one of several victories that the government has gained against America at the tribunal,” he said in remarks carried by State TV.

The United Nations’ highest court ruled Wednesday that it can hear a case brought by Iran against the United States. It seeks to end sanctions the administration of former President Donald Trump re-imposed in 2018 after pulling out of an international deal aimed at curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program.

US President Donald Trump signs a document reinstating sanctions against Iran after announcing the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 8, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB)

Lawyers for the US argued at hearings last year that the case should be thrown out by the court for lack of jurisdiction and admissibility.

Iran filed the case in July 2018, a few months after then-President Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of the 2015 international agreement and would re-impose sanctions on Tehran. Washington also threatened other countries with sanctions if they didn’t cut off Iranian oil imports by early November.

Iran alleges the sanctions breach a 1955 bilateral agreement known as the Treaty of Amity that regulates and promotes economic and consular ties between the two countries.

The ruling Wednesday came as US President Joe Biden is seeking to enhance diplomacy toward Iran.

The court based in The Hague, Netherlands, had ruled in favor of Iran in a preliminary ruling in October 2018, saying that Washington should “remove, by means of its choosing, any impediments arising from” the re-imposition of sanctions to the export to Iran of medicine and medical devices, food and agricultural commodities and spare parts and equipment necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation.

The US sanctions do have specific carve-outs for medicine and humanitarian aid to Iran. However, international banks and financial institutions hesitate in dealing with Iran transactions for fear of being fined or locked out of the American market.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/irans-president-claims-big-victory-in-legal-efforts-to-end-us-sanctions/

The post Iran’s president claims ‘big victory’ in legal efforts to end US sanctions first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The new facility was built on the Persian Gulf, a hotly contested maritime region that plays a key role in global oil exports

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) published photos of a new underground missile base on the coast of the Persian Gulf on Friday, amid increasing tensions between the Islamic Republic and the US.

“The base is one of several bases housing the Guards’ Navy’s strategic missiles,” state media quoted IRGC Chief Commander Hossein Salami, regarding the base located somewhere in the province of Hormozgan.

“Our logic in defending the territorial integrity, the independence of the country, and the achievements of the Islamic Revolution is strengthening,” Salami said, according to the national newspaper Mehr News.

Strengthened defensive capabilities

The commander also boasted that the new Naval Missile Facility held long-range missiles with pin-point precision and “huge destructive power.”

Salami claimed that the base would strengthen Iran’s defensive capabilities, especially against “the enemy’s electronic warfare equipment.”

Rising tensions between the Islamic Republic and the US came to a head-on Monday when Revolutionary Guards seized a South Korean tanker in the straits of Hormuz.

The relations between the two sides were put under extra strain after President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed heavy sanctions on the country.

Open hostilities almost broke out in January 2020 after the assassination of Iran’s top general Qassim Soleimani by a US drone strike in Iraq.

Top Iranian lawmakers have shown a willingness to return to negotiations with President-elect Joe Biden, however, the country’s powerful conservative establishment has continued to stoke the flames with a promise to ramp up uranium enrichment.

A warning to Iran’s enemies

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke on Friday in a live television broadcast praising the country’s defensive capabilities.

He claimed that with the ability to shoot down drones and hit the US  Ain al-Assad air force base in Iraq — in response to Soleimani’s death — the country’s foes would have to take into account Iran’s ability to militarily defend itself.

The Persian Gulf has been a repeated zone of conflict between the US and the Islamic Republic

The IRGC said last year that they had built underground “missile cities” along the Gulf coastline, warning of a “nightmare for Iran’s enemies.”

Salami praised the developments of Iran’s defense systems highlighting the “great progress at the level of target intelligence systems, search systems, as well as missile radar systems.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/iran-reveals-new-missile-base-on-the-persian-gulf/a-56170071

The post Iran reveals new missile base on the Persian Gulf first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A South Korean delegation left for Iran on Thursday to negotiate the early release of an oil tanker and its crew seized in strategic Gulf waters this week.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps troops on Monday stormed the South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi as it navigated the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and forced the vessel to a nearby Iranian port.

Iranian officials said the vessel was seized for violating maritime environmental laws as it was carrying 7,200 tons of “oil chemical products.”

The Guards said they arrested crew were from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

“I plan to meet my counterpart at the Iranian Foreign Ministry and will meet others through various routes if it will help efforts to resolve the issue of the ship’s seizure,” Koh Kyung-sok, the chief delegate, and the director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s Middle Eastern affairs department, was quoted as saying before boarding the plane to Tehran.

The strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman

Tensions spiral in the Gulf

Iran’s seizure of the tanker came after Tehran had urged Seoul to release the $7 billion (€5.7 billion) of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea under US sanctions.

The money was frozen in South Korean banks after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a multilateral agreement which limited Tehran’s nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for a relaxation of international economic and financial sanctions.

President Trump then slapped unilateral trade and financial sanctions on Iran.

The US had initially provided South Korea with a waiver to avoid implementing the new sanctions, but those lapsed, essentially forcing Seoul to freeze the Iranian assets.

Iran’s move to seize the vessel also coincides with Tehran’s announcement that it will increase the level of uranium enrichment at its Fordo nuclear facility to 20%, well above that agreed to with several countries, including the US, until Trump’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018. Uranium enriched to 90% is required to fuel nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.

Meanwhile, January 2 marked the one-year anniversary of the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, in a US drone attack.

Tension between the Islamic Republic and the United States has been running high in recent weeks, as Tehran marked the assassination, and Washington deployed military assets to the region, including the return of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and repeated sorties of pairs of strategic B-52 bombers over the Persian Gulf.

Concerns over the potential for a military confrontation between the US and Iran have been voiced from several quarters over the past few weeks. President Trump threatened Iran over a rocket attack by Tehran-backed Iraqi militants near the US Embassy in Baghdad on Christmas Eve.

Iran has responded to the US military moves, with its Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accusing Trump of manufacturing a pretext to attack Iran in the waning hours of his administration.

The crisis also follows the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27, an attack still shrouded in mystery.

Washington has deployed more military assets to the Persian Gulf, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz

A lot of uncertainty

All this adds up to a lot of moving parts and a lot of uncertainty, says Cheong Wook-sik of the South Korean NGO PeaceNetwork. Like most observers, Cheong places little credence on the validity of Iran’s “pollution” justification for seizing the oil tanker.

He suggests the move is more likely designed to generate leverage over the US in terms of a potential return to the Iranian nuclear agreement (formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), initially negotiated when incoming US President Joe Biden was vice-president, and a supporter of the deal concluded under President Barack Obama.

“For South Korea to release the $7 billion in Iranian funds held in South Korean banks it would require some type of waiver from implementing the US sanctions, or for the US to return to the JCPOA,” Cheong told DW, adding: “The Iranian government also hopes the South Korean government will ask the new incoming Biden administration to lift the economic sanctions against Iran.”

Although there is significant concern frequently voiced in the public sphere over the potential for Trump to initiate a crisis in his last days in office, the incoming Biden administration provides hope for a significant drawdown of tension, said Cheong.

Changes in US policy will be required, he pointed out.

“In order to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, the United States, especially the new administration, should lift economic sanctions and return to the Iranian nuclear deal. At the same time, Iran should stop the enrichment of uranium fuel to 20% at the Fordo facilities,” he said. “These two things should be done simultaneously. If so, the Iranian frozen assets issue can be resolved, and the seized South Korean ship returned.”

A mediating role?

South Korea may represent a perfect intermediary between the US and Iran. South Korea had imported a significant portion of its oil from Iran prior to United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed before negotiating the JCPOA deal. Also, historically, Seoul has had good diplomatic relations with Tehran for decades. Cheong views the ship seizure very much through the lens of geopolitical strategy.

“The Iranian government wants to send a message to the United States, that if the United States does not lift economic sanctions, the Iranian government can exact revenge on US allies such as South Korea. At the same time, South Korea can play some kind of mediating role between Iran and the United States on these issues.”

Still, the risk of a military flare-up is there. The seizure, the enrichment, and the anniversary, says Cheong, “can trigger reactions from Israel and the United States.”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has argued for a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, suggesting the increase in enrichment provides evidence Iran is seeking nukes and not nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes.

Although South Korea said it is committed to resolving the ship seizure issue diplomatically, that resolution will likely require the involvement of Washington and the next US administration.

“I hope that the Biden team sends some message — officially or unofficially — after its inauguration on January 20 … to seek dialogue with the Iranian government for resolving the current issues peacefully, such a message would weaken the hardliners in Iran, Israel, and the United States and strengthen the doves,” said the PeaceNetwork director.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/south-korea-iran-oil-tanker-sanctions/a-56156528

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media in Washington. Reuters

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned the incoming Biden administration against warming relations with Iran, during an opening address at a Bahrain security summit on Friday.

President-elect Joe Biden has signaled an interest in re-engaging with Iran by returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement that President Donald Trump withdrew from.

“I think it’s fundamentally the wrong direction,” said Mr Pompeo.

The move would be a significant pivot from Mr Trump’s Iran policy, which has created a “maximum pressure campaign” to isolate Iran diplomatically militarily, and economically.

Mr. Pompeo made the remarks at the Manama Dialogue, organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The annual gathering brings together policymakers in the Gulf region and beyond to tackle the most prevalent security challenges in the Middle East.

Amos Yadlin, who used to head Israeli military intelligence, was in attendance and questioned Mr Pompeo on whether the maximum pressure campaign has been successful considering that Iran has “more enriched uranium and more centrifuges,” putting it closer to the threshold needed to build a nuclear weapon.

Mr Pompeo said “turning off a few centrifuges,” wasn’t a significant enough reason to remain in the nuclear agreement as he downplayed the recent escalations in Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The Iranians are desperately signalling their willingness to return to the negotiating table to get sanctions relief,” Mr Pompeo said. He did not elaborate on what signals Washington has seen.

The Manama Dialogue is being held at Bahrain’s Ritz Carlton hotel, but many sessions will be broadcast virtually. In-person attendance will be limited, in line with the government’s Covid-19 safety measures.

Officials from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other countries are expected to deliver addresses during the three-day summit.

The event comes on the heels of recent trips to Israel and the Gulf region from both Mr Pompeo and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

The Trump administration is using its final weeks in power trying to strengthen the president’s Middle East policy initiatives.

The crown jewel of Mr Trump’s Middle East policy is the Abraham Accord, which normalised relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain.

“We think that’s important for peace throughout the Middle East,” said Mr Pompeo.

Mediator nation Kuwait has signalled progress in recent days on talks over the decision by the Arab Coalition to freeze ties with Qatar. “We’re going to keep working to do what we can to facilitate conversations and dialogue,” said the US secretary of state.

“We are very hopeful that the dispute between the Saudis and the Qataris can be resolved.”

In the waning days of his administration, Mr Trump has also been pushing for other countries in the region to establish ties with Israel.

Mr Pompeo said he was confident more countries will move to normalise ties with Israel.

“A lot of influential people in the world would have said that even hoping for these achievements was pure fantasy,” said Mr Pompeo about the Abraham Accord signing.

“We show that the real fantasy was the bankrupt conventional wisdom that said there couldn’t be progress until the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was solved,” he added.

Source: https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/gcc/pompeo-warns-biden-against-warming-relations-with-iran-1.1123011

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Iran has vowed it won’t “fall into the trap” of scuppering any future talks with a new U.S. administration following the assassination of a top nuclear scientist.

“Iran’s scientific and defense policies won’t change because of the assassination of one scientist or general,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a statement Sunday posted on the government’s official website. The Islamic Republic “shouldn’t fall into the trap of linking the assassination to past nuclear negotiations,” he said.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a veteran physicist who played a major role in Iran’s nuclear research and defense activities, was killed in a bombing and shooting ambush outside Tehran on Friday. Iran has blamed Israel, which had accused Fakhrizadeh of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb project and hasn’t commented on the allegation.

Underscoring the support for diplomacy, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said while “Iran and the U.S. will continue to have fundamental differences,” the tension between Tehran and Washington needn’t continue after Trump is out of office.

“Under Trump’s presidency, Iran and U.S. tensions rose to a 40-year peak. It seems unnecessary for this situation to continue,” Zarif told the Entekhab news website in an interview on Sunday.

Both Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump oppose President-elect Joe Biden’s intention to rejoin the Obama-era nuclear accord if Tehran — which denies bomb-making ambitions — also returns to full compliance.

Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018 and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, considered attacking the country during his last few weeks in office but was dissuaded by senior aides, the New York Times reported. The killing of Fakhrizadeh, who will be buried in Tehran on Monday, could also complicate a return to the accord.

“This assassination will not remain unanswered, but our response won’t come at a time, place or shape they expect,” Rabiei said, referring to Israel and the U.S. “Iran sets the time and the place.”

Speaking Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Adm. Mike Mullen, said the assassination will make it more difficult for Biden to re-enter the nuclear agreement with Iran.

“Fakhrizadeh was at the heart of the Iranian nuclear program,” he said. “Not only the brains but also the passion behind it, so his assassination is really a significant event.”

Mullen added he was hopeful that Biden “can actually reach in and calm the waters, but I think this heightens tension significantly.”

Friday’s incident tops a year of crisis and instability that started with Trump ordering the killing of a top Iranian general in a Jan. 3 drone strike in Baghdad. Iran retaliated with a missile strike on a U.S. base in Iraq that didn’t result in any fatalities. But its unintentional downing of a passenger plane above Tehran in the aftermath killed 176 people.

Hard-liners inside Iran are angry at President Hassan Rouhani for trying to keep the 2015 deal alive while attacks continue on Iran. The ultrahard-line Kayhan newspaper, whose editor is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published an opinion piece on Sunday calling for the northern Israeli city of Haifa to be attacked in retaliation.

“Assuming that the role of the Zionist regime in this great martyrdom can be proved, we can operationalize this threat,” the column said. “We should attack the port city of Haifa in such a way that in addition to destroying its facilities, heavy human casualties are also incurred so that our deterrence is optimized.”

The newspaper has made similar calls in the past and, while it reflects the views of the most radical elements of the Islamic Republic, its circulation is relatively small and it doesn’t necessarily represent pragmatists in the government and military.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/11/30/world/iran-us-nuclear-talks/

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