October 16, 2013
The Guardian (UK)

Outline of Iran Nuclear Deal Emerges

Iran hints at a long-run settlement to the nuclear impasse. But can the six other states at the Geneva talks respond?

by Julian Borger

The first round talks on the Iranian nuclear programme involving the new Tehran government are heading towards a conclusion. After a morning of bilateral meetings and calls to capitals to check positions, the Iranian delegation went back into the chamber at Geneva's Palais des Nations with diplomats from six nations to resume discussion on Iran's plans for dealing with the decade-old nuclear deadlock.

At the end of the day, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton (who acts as convenor for the six-nation group) are expected to issue a joint statement - itself a rare event at such meetings - and presumably announce plans for a follow-up session in a week or two.

The big question now is whether the six nations (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China) are able to put together a coherent response to Iran's proposed road-map for navigating away out of the chronic, deepening nuclear crisis. . . .

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Non-Proliferation Treaty (July 1, 1968)
- Forbids the five member states with nuclear weapons from transferring them to any other state
- Forbids member states without nuclear weapons from developing or aquiring them
- Provides assurance through the application of international safeguards that peaceful nuclear energy in NNWS will not be diverted to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices
- Facilitates access to peaceful uses of nuclear energy for all NNWS under international safeguards
- Commits all member states to pursue good faith negotiations toward ending the nuclear arms race and achieving nuclear disarmament.

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[Hatred of the Shia/Alawite Syrian regime, an unquenchable suspicion of Shia Iran's nuclear plans and a general fear of Shia expansion is turning the unelected Sunni Arab monarchies into proxy allies of the Israeli state--Robert Fisk, "How the Sunni-Shia schism is dividing the world," independent.co.uk, October 23, 2013]

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[Israel, which is believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal and regards its arch-enemy Iran as a mortal threat, has repeatedly mooted military action against Tehran if it does not mothball its entire nuclear program.--Louis Charbonneau and Yeganeh Torbati, "Iran nuclear deal unlikely as split emerges in Western camp: diplomats," reuters.com, November 9, 2013

[Israel has threatened to bomb the reactor before it starts operations, pointing out that once it is fuelled, bombing becomes impossible as it would scatter radioactive fallout around a large region. . . . some western officials accused France of sabotaging the hopes of a deal to curry favour with Israel and the Gulf Arab states.--Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, "Geneva talks end without deal on Iran's nuclear programme: Diplomats said to be furious after France objected to a stopgap deal being presented as a fait accompli," theguardian.com, November 9, 2013]

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[When the former speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg, broke the taboo last month, declaring Israeli possession of both nuclear and chemical weapons and describing the official non-disclosure policy as "outdated and childish" a rightwing group formally called for a police investigation for treason.

Meanwhile, western governments have played along with the policy of "opacity" by avoiding all mention of the issue. In 2009, when a veteran Washington reporter, Helen Thomas, asked Barack Obama in the first month of his presidency if he knew of any country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, he dodged the trapdoor by saying only that he did not wish to "speculate".--Julian Borger, "The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal," theguardian.com, January 15, 2014]

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[The Washington narrative about Iran's alleged secret program to obtain nuclear weapons capability is among the single greatest lies ever propagated by the Warfare State.--David Stockman, "The 30-Year US/Iran Nuke Standoff: We Started It In The Reagan Days," davidstockmanscontracorner.com, March 26, 2014]

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[We got the fundamental bomb-preventing restrictions (including most significantly a complete elimination of medium-level uranium enrichment) and enhanced inspections we sought, in return for only minor sanctions relief to Iran that leaves all the major banking and oil sanctions in place. If negotiations were to go on forever under these terms, we would have no cause to complain to the Iranians.

But the Iranians do not have comparable reason to be happy about this week's development. The arrangement announced in Vienna is bound to be a tough sell back in Tehran for President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif.--Paul R. Pillar, "The Risks of No Iran-Nuke Deal," consortiumnews.com, November 24, 2014]

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[Ironically, its is the existing declared nuclear powers - the US, Russia, China, France, Britain - who are in violation of the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty. The pact denied nuclear weapons to other nations provided that the signatories rapidly eliminate their nuclear arsenals. Four decades later, none have complied with the treaty, while Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea have all secretly built nuclear arsenals.--Eric Margolis, "Nuclear Chicken in the Mideast," ericmargolis.com, November 29, 2014]

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[Mossadegh's ouster led to the return of Shah Reza Pahlavi, whose regime turned increasingly oppressive until it was overthrown 26 years later by followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the Islamic Revolution. The story of Mossadegh is still regularly referenced by Iranian leaders as an example of American meddling, an argument they make in relation to their nuclear program.--Bradley Klapper, "US delays release of study on 1953 Iran coup," AP, December 18, 2014]

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[We do for India what we not only refrain from doing for Iran, but positively try to crush Iran to realize the Israeli-Saudi geopolitical power play in the Middle East.--Norman Pollack, "Obama's India Visit: Shill for American Capitalism," counterpunch.org, January 26, 2015]

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["The Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits most U.S. foreign aid to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside international safeguards," Smith wrote.

"The Glenn Amendment of 1977 calls for an end to U.S. foreign aid to countries that import nuclear reprocessing technology."--"US helped Israel with H-bomb - 1980s report declassified," rt.com, February 13, 2015]

[Iran probably stopped pursuing a nuclear bomb in 2003, according to the most recently published U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, the consensus of 16 intelligence agencies including the CIA.--Jonathan Tironer, "CIA's Nuclear-Bomb Sting Said to Spur Review in Iran Arms Case," bloomberg.com, February 20, 2015]

[Binyamin Netanyahu's dramatic declaration to world leaders in 2012 that Iran was about a year away from making a nuclear bomb was contradicted by his own secret service, according to a top-secret Mossad document.--Seumas Milne, Ewen MacAskill and Clayton Swisher, "Leaked cables show Netanyahu's Iran bomb claim contradicted by Mossad," theguardian.com, February 23, 2015]

[Iran does not have a nuclear bomb and is signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. . . . Iran has not launched an aggressive war since 1775, . . . Modern Iran has not occupied the territory of its neighbors. . . . All the people ruled over by Iran can vote in national elections--Juan Cole, "5 Surprising Ways Iran is better than Israel," juancole.com, February 27, 2015]

[Bibi wants to destroy this opportunity. He wants more sanctions. He wants to win the Israeli elections on 17 March. He might even bomb Iran - which would bring an immediate military response against the United States.--Robert Fisk, "The difference between America and Israel? There isn't one," independent.co.uk, March 1, 2015]

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[Israel has seventy-five to 400 bombs (others say it is more like 100 to 200). --William Greider, "What About Israel's Nuclear Bomb?," thenation.com, March 12, 2015]

[Israel's nuclear research labs, the IDA researchers reported, "are equivalent to our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories."--William Greider, "It's Official: The Pentagon Finally Admitted That Israel Has Nuclear Weapons, Too," counterpunch.org, March 20, 2015]

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[Israel and Saudi Arabia . . . are cooperating in trying to torpedo the agreement. . . . the alliance between Tel Aviv and Riyadh was sealed by a secret $16 billion gift from Riyadh to an Israeli "development" account in Europe, some of which has been used to build illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories.--Conn Hallinan, "The Yemen War: Redrawing the Faultlines," counterpunch.org, May 13, 2015]

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[ . . . the politics of Iran nuclear policy have been shaped by a deceptive tactic of demanding a detailed accounting by Iran of nuclear weapons work that Iran has always denied. That demand makes no sense except as a way to either justify punishing Iran or to sabotage any nuclear agreement. If Western intelligence actually had hard evidence of an Iranian nuclear program, it wouldn't need a detailed confession from Iran.

The Obama administration adopted the demand as part of the negotiations only under pressure from the Israelis and their lobby in Washington.--Gareth Porter, "How the Bush Administration Created the Iran "Nuclear Confession" Scam," truth-out.org, June 22, 2015]

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[JCPOA imposes more restrictions on Iranian enrichment capabilities and stockpiles, and on inspection and monitoring of compliance, than has been imposed on any country in the course of the entire nuclear era. . . . And left out of consideration altogether was the nuclear weapons arsenal of Israel acquired with Western complicity and by covert means--Richard Falk, "Alliance Blackmail: Israel's Opposition to the Iran Nuclear Agreement," commondreams.org, July 26, 2015]

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[the Pentagon plans to spend $1 trillion over 30 years on "an entire new generation of nuclear bombs, bombers, missiles and submarines," including a dozen submarines carrying more than 1,000 warheads, capable of decimating any country anywhere. In the meantime, President Obama has ordered 200 new nuclear bombs deployed in Europe.--Katrina vanden Heuvel, "The new nuclear arms race," washingtonpost.com, December 15, 2015]

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