30 thoughts on “Iran and U.S.: Gathering Momentum for Peace – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Richard:

    In fact, during the Khatami/Rouhani era in 2003-2005, Khamenei was again interested in a diplomatic solution. In May 2003 the Khatami/Rouhani/Zarif (current FM and then UN ambassador) proposed a “grand bargain” to the US, putting every issue on the table, from Hezbollah, Hasmas and recognition of Israel, to nuke, but Bush rejected it. Khatami and Rouhani suspended Iran’s nuclear program from October 2003-August 2005, but the European Union reneged on its promises in return for the suspension.

          1. Anyone that considers Michael Rubin, the same man who advocated invasion of Iraq and after invasion was a consultant on Iraq, the same MR that resides in the American Enterprise Institute, the pro-Israel bastion of war, destruction and neoconsims, the same MR that has advised members of MEK, a terrorist cult on how to write, as credible, must first establish that he is not insane!!

          2. Lawdy, comparing Michael Rubin to Muhammad: well, let’s see. Michael Rubin is a pro Israel neocon who never met an anti-Arab/Muslim war he didn’t like. Never fought for anyone, never dodged a bullet.

            Muhammad is Iranian, a professor of engineering, respected journalist who contributes to various respected publications like The National Interest, Antiwar.com, Christian Science Monitor. He and his family have suffered considerably before they arrived here.

            Please don’t make a total jackass of yourself, J.J. We’re way ahead of you.

          3. And garbage that was given life and took the form of a man. It’s telling that you seem to think he’s legitimate and worth lauding.

      1. @ J.J.: Holy smokes, J.J. is using Daniel Pipes as a “credible source!!” What a laugher! You expect us to digest the bullshit Pipes pulls from various nether regions of his Islamophobic imagination??

        Read my comment rules. They require using credible sources. Pipes or anything to do with him is NOT one.

  2. Why is AIPAC so fiercely anti-Iran? What is the motivation in being so resistant to any peaceful overtures from Rouhani?

    1. @Bob Mann

      Why is the super reactionary, elite branch of the Revolutionary Guard, the Quds Force, named for the Persian word for Jerusalem, and why have its fighters promised to liberate Jerusalem?

          1. @Kevin: is that the best you can do? You are a condescending pseudo-elitist. Get picked on much as a child?

      1. @ J.J.: That’s another fiction from your brave, courageous Dexter Filkins. He claims without offering any support that members of Quds Force promise to liberate Jerusalem. Can you find any credible source that supports this claim? If not, you’re just as guilty of slinging the hash/hasbara as Filkins.

    2. It spoils their anti-Muslim narrative. If a Muslim country in conflict with Israel actually seeks to resolve differences it would mean Israel might be expected to do the same with other enemies like the Palestinians. Anything but that!!

  3. I have been and am always optimistic, looking for opportunities where diplomacy could lead to a breakthrough towards peace in the Greater Middle-East.

    Secretary Kerry had to win the battle inside the Oval Office from “humanitarian hawks” Susan Rice and Samantha Power. His leading “off-the-cuff” remark caused the space for Lavrov and Putin to make a CW proposal on Syria.

    President Obama made a decision to go through Congress and delayed the military strike, which would have caused deep trauma to the Middle-East and played into the hands of the right-wing conservatives in Congress, Turkey, GCC States and Israel. Any act of war outside International Law would have destructed Obama’s second term, sharpened conflict with our “enemy” states Syria, Iraq, Russia, Lebanon (Hezbollah) and Iran. My take a fortnight ago …

    If John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov illustrate their determination …
    STEP 1 – Resolve CW issue on Syria
    STEP 2 – Arms embargo and a political solution for Syria
    STEP 3 – Resolve nuclear issue of Iran with president Rouhani
    STEP 4 – Finalize a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine

    Peace Will Be the Nail In Netanyahu’s Coffin Feb. 20, 2013

  4. RE: “Israel’s response has also been resoundingly negative. From the top, the rightist government has universally panned the peace overture. Netanyahu has called Rouhani a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” The Israeli embassy tweeted a sophomoric mock-LinkedIn profile for Rouhani in which he listed his achievements in promoting nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Someone should’ve reminded the embassy staffer who cooked this up that Israel is itself a nuclear proliferator which refuses to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (unlike Iran). ~ R.S.

    MY COMMENT: As to Netanyahu calling Rouhani a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”, this appears to be yet another instance of ‘psychological projection’ on the part of the Israelis*!

    * FOR SOME BACKGROUND ON ISRAEL’S MENDACITY REGARDING ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM, SEE:
    “How Israel Out-Foxed US Presidents”, By Morgan Strong (A Special Report), ConsortiumNews.com, 5/31/10

    [EXCERPT]● Secret Nukes and JFK

    . . . Even as it backed down in the Sinai [following its invasion in 1956], Israel was involved in another monumental deception, a plan for building its own nuclear arsenal.
    In 1956, Israel had concluded an agreement with France to build a nuclear reactor in the Negev desert. Israel also signed a secret agreement with France to build an adjacent plutonium reprocessing plant.

    Israel began constructing its nuclear plant in 1958. However, French President Charles de Gaulle was worried about nuclear weapons destabilizing the Middle East and insisted that Israel not develop a nuclear bomb from the plutonium processing plant. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion assured de Gaulle that the processing plant was for peaceful purposes only.
    After John F. Kennedy became President, he also wrote to Ben-Gurion explicitly calling on Israel not to join the nuclear-weapons club, drawing another pledge from Ben-Gurion that Israel had no such intention.
    Nevertheless, Kennedy continued to press, forcing the Israelis to let U.S. scientists inspect the nuclear reactor at Dimona. But the Israelis first built a fake control room while bricking up and otherwise disguising parts of the building that housed the plutonium processing plant.
    In return for allowing inspectors into Dimona, Ben-Gurion also demanded that the United States sell Hawk surface-to-air missiles to the Israeli military. Kennedy agreed to the sale as a show of good faith.
    Subsequently, however, the CIA got wind of the Dimona deception and leaked to the press that Israel was secretly building a nuclear bomb.
    After Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon Johnson also grew concerned over Israel’s acquiring nuclear weapons. He asked then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
    Eshkol assured Johnson that Israel was studying the matter and would sign the treaty in due course. However, Israel has never signed the treaty
    and never has admitted that it developed nuclear weapons. [For details, See “Israel and The Bomb” by Avner Cohen.] . . .

    ENTIRE REPORT – http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/053110.html

  5. Great write up, Richard. It’s a horrifying thought to think that when there is a chance for peace that powerful interests still oppose it. To be honest, it really raised the question of whether there can be any hope for humanity.

  6. The stumbling block comes further down the line:
    How does the US, or anybody else, know that a deal made and signed by the Iranian president will not be torn up or simply ignored by the Supreme Leader, who has his own armed forces, commanded and funded in total isolation from Iran’s government?

    It’s not the weapons which have to go: it’s the situation where every single thing the Iranian government does, can be second guessed by a parallel power structure that’s accountable to no-one.

    Iran is an intractable problem because the post revolutionary power structure was designed by the first Supreme Leader to be intractable. Even if the current Supreme Leader wants to overcome this, it won’t be easy because Khomeni knew that almost any possible successor might chose a softer line or an easier path than he would, and there is in consequence a well-constructed briar patch at every turn.

  7. Israel’s eternal coalition politics does not make it very much easier for Israel to ratify a deal than it would be for Iran.

    Nick Clegg’s recent speech to his party conference was instructive, in that he gloried in the way that his minority party had been able to block anything it wanted to and that it had every prospect of retaining that power regardless of how the British public voted in the next General Election. That’s been the reality in Israel for decades. Instead of a Supreme Leader, you have a Supreme Irritant. Or, in Israel, three or four of ’em.

    Iran needs a government that is actually sovereign and not subject to the whims of a theocracy, and Israel needs a majority government. When those are in place, there will be peace agreements because they will be possible. At the moment, everyone knows they need them, but they also know that they won’t be able to do them.

  8. Reading posts here about Iran, one gets the idea that Iran is at least as much responsible for the ‘crisis’ as are the US and its allies and puppets. This is patently FALSE. First of all, Iran is NOT trying to develop nuclear weapons. This is the assessment of the American Intel Community as even the NYT admitted: ““Recent assessments by American spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program years earlier,” and “The officials said that assessment was largely reaffirmed in a 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, and that it remains the consensus view of America’s 16 intelligence agencies”. On the other hand, any informed person knows Israel has Nuclear, Biological and CW.
    Iran has not attacked a country in more than 200 years! But it was invaded by the Brits and Soviets during WWII, then had its Democracy destroyed by a US/Brit regime change coup in 53, fully documented, and a US puppet dictator installed. Right after the revolution, Iraq attacked the troubled country and received US support. Since then Iran has been suffering
    increasingly draconican sanctions, totally ILLEGAL, which amount to an act of war against the Persian Nation. The Zionists are and have been for a long time the main force pushing for a war on Iran, just as they pushed for war against Iraq and Syria.
    It’s no surprise the Iranian leadership is suspicious and it BETTER BE. As for Rouhani, as a well informed person said: “Contrary to various propaganda claims the Iranian president said nothing essential that differed much from what his predecessor said. But he said it in a different tone and with a much better orchestration and that made all the difference.”

    As for Syria, the country IS a multi-ethnic/sectarian society and until this imposed and engineered war against it, it was also quite stable. To wish that it becomes something like Lebanon, an unstable country filled with traitors who cooperate with Israel, US and Saudi interests, is to wish a weak State, one that cannot stand up to Israel, one that would be compromised as a partner in the axis of resistence. That is why Mr.Silverstein WISHES such an outcome for Syria.

    1. @ Luca K: I’m sure Hezbollah would be happy to have you label its members “traitors.” I’m also touched by how zealous you are in determining for Lebanese who are and are not “traitors.” Why don’t you stick to doing that for the country of which you are a citizen & stop sticking your nose into the internal affairs & definitions for other states?

      You think Assad has “stood up” to Israel?? Don’t make me laugh! He’s a paper tiger. Syria hasn’t stood up to Israel since 1973, & that wasn’t even Bashar’s doing!

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