Monday, November 11, 2013

GENEVA: “THE "5 APHORISMS" OF IRAN - WEST NUCLEAR TALKS.

The squabbles among  the Group of 5+1 states and Iran in Geneva, Switzerland,  over Iran’s Nuclear Program can be summed up in the following 5-tiered and appropriately elongated aphorisms:

1.   Iran expects to be treated like “a state,” but the Group of 5+1 believes that sanctions and extortion will force it to accept a sub-state Islamic Republic status!  But Iran has stood up since 1979, thanks to the mullahs who are incorruptible, ready for war, and unwilling to capitulate!  Iran today is an analogy of what Cuba was in the second half of the 20th Century, as I shall explain later.

2.   The U.S. claims at the Geneva talks that it is ready to accept a “half loaf”  and settle, rather than vainly keep pushing  for a  “full loaf” until Iran has a nuke in the bag!  After all,  a war against Iran (as Israel begs the U.S. for) will cut Gulf oil supplies, crash the U.S. stock market, and re-sink the still floundering U.S. economy.  The U.S. boasts that  “all options are on the table,” but the boast is just a “baby pacifier” for Israel and nothing more. After three U.S. debacles in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan,  the U.S. appetite for more wars is lost.    

3.   Then France stands up at Geneva and  demands “a full loaf” from Iran, including  partial dismantling of its nuclear oven (Iran's heavy water reactor)!  I bet this is a shell game in which the U.S. asked France to make an extraneous demand on Iran, and if Iran yields, then Great Britain will make another, then Germany another and so on,  until Iran nuclear facilties are stripped.  This would help the U.S. look conciliatory while its underlings do the stripping! The French demand, therefore, seems to be  "The Camel Puts Its Head Under The Tent" move in the Aesop fable!  And there are more camels in the 5+1 group waiting to take their turn! 

4.   Israel with political contributions to 400 U.S. congressmen and about 70 U.S. senators, it has bought the U.S. laws on Iranian sanctions.  The late Wisconsin U.S. senator William Proxmire confirmed on an NBC interview that "People come to Washington with money and buy legislation!"  Ditto on how all the Jewish money flowing into all those pro-Israeli legislators piled up all those Iranian sanctions!  All those congressmen and senators will keep the Iranian sanctions on to keep the Jewish money flowing into their future campaigns!  Lifting the Iran sanctions would be akin to killing the proverbial "Goose that lays golden eggs" for them!  President Obama can suspend a few sanctions, but only they can lift them.  Wherefore, Israel  has more control on the U.S. foreign policy on Iranian sanctions than Barack Obama himself does! 

5    The other countries in the 5+1  group are just countries that the U.S. has
forced to join-in,  reluctantly,  with various quid-pro quo deals that require
their co-operation.  The late U.S. senator Edward Kennedy  called those 
reluctant U.S.  allies “The coalition of the unwilling and the arm twisted!”
And those 5+1 = 6  claim to to act on the behalf of the  "International Community,"  namely on behalf of the 192  world states registered at the United Nations General Assembly.  But on a recent vote at the General Assembly against the U.S. embargo on Cuba,  188 nations voted for Cuba and against the U.S.  The U.S. got only 2 votes.  Its own, and Israel's!  Therefore, when the U.S. and Israel claim that Iran is a danger to the "International Community," they mean their own definition of "international community consisting of 2 states - themselves!"  The Cuban embargo and the Iranian sanctions are therefore the same things and for similar reasons:  Both countries had successful anti-American Revolutions, and the U.S. is still taking revenge on them. 

The Epilogue:  The U.S. - Iran talks will resume in a month,  but with low
level officials haggling over thorny points in pointless to-be meetings.  It will   
be history testing the 34-years Western folly (since 1979) to bring Iran on its knees and limit its boundless influence in the highly hostile to the U.S.  Muslim world.  Any precedent?  Yes. Cuba has already turned Latin America into the second anti-U.S. bastion outside the Muslim world!  The Arab springs are still evolving,  and keeping Iran weak is a priority.  But with the specter of Iranian nukes behind the horizon,  the U.S. has to weigh its "loss/benefit" policy options.  

The U.S. sanctions on Iran started after the 1979 Revolution - and before Iran started its nuclear program.  They were based on a U.S. propaganda that labeled Iran as "a terrorist supporting state."  When Iran started its nuclear program,  the U.S. added it on, and piled up more sanctions.  Nukes or no nukes, the U.S. would have maintained sanctions on Iran as it still has on Cuba.  But now the U.S. wants to trade some trivial sanctions if Iran scraps its nuclear program - while keeping all tough sanction on!  Its a fallacy, but so were the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The U.S. wants at the outset to gain full access to Iran's nuclear program through IAEA  agents that can gauge Iran's nuclear capabilities.  The U.S. tried to obtain that information about 3 years ago when it lured an Iranian nuclear scientist, Shahram Amiri, to defect to the U.S. for $ 5 millions.  But then it found out that he was a dud,  and he absconded back to Iran with the money.  The U.S. left the $ 5 millions offer open for others more knowledgeable.  And when nobody took the offer, it started the assassinations of nuclear scientist inside Iran - along with Israel.  Now in Geneva the U.S. wants to get from Iran what it couldn't get through threats of war, bribes, or assassinations.     

Nikos Retsos, retired professor

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