IRAN: THE TIME HAS COME TO TALK Blockades and the danger of disaster

[Jefferson23]

April 14, 2012

By Juan Cole

Introduction by Tom Engelhardt: Negotiators for Iran, the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany - the P5+1 or "Iran Six" - meet in Istanbul, Turkey this weekend, face to face, for the first time in more than a year. There are small signs of possible future compromise on both sides when it comes to Iran's nuclear program (and a semi-public demand from Washington that could be an instant deal-breaker). Looking at the big picture, though, there's a remarkable amount we simply don't know about Washington's highly militarized policy toward Iran. Juan Cole does a remarkable job of offering us a full-scale picture of the complex economic underpinnings of the present Iran-US-Israeli crisis and the unnerving dangers involved.

It's a policy fierce enough to cause great suffering among Iranians - and possibly in the long run among Americans, too. It might, in the end, even deeply harm the global economy and yet, history tells us, it will fail on its own. Economic war led by Washington (and encouraged by Israel) will not take down the Iranian government or bring it to the bargaining table on its knees ready to surrender its nuclear program. It might, however, lead to actual armed conflict with incalculable consequences.

The United States is already effectively embroiled in an economic war against Iran. The Barack Obama administration has subjected the Islamic Republic to the most crippling economic sanctions applied to any country since Iraq was reduced to fourth-world status in the 1990s. And worse is on the horizon. A financial blockade is being imposed that seeks to prevent Tehran from selling petroleum, its most valuable commodity, as a way of dissuading the regime from pursuing its nuclear enrichment program.

Historical memory has never been an American strong point and few today remember that a global embargo on Iranian petroleum is hardly a new tactic in Western geopolitics; nor do many recall that the last time it was applied with such stringency, in the 1950s, it led to the overthrow of the government with disastrous long-term blowback on the United States. The tactic is just as dangerous today.

remainder: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ND14Ak05.html

[msongs]

1. international oil comanies are wanking as they pray & hope for a blockade nt

[Scurrilous]

2. P5 +1 Iran nuclear talks went swimmingly! Netanyahu is fuming

<snip>

"Diplomats met in Istanbul on Saturday for the first formal negotiation in over a year between Iran and P5+1 (the United States, Russia, China, England, France, Germany, and the UK). After 10 hours of intensive negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, it appears the outcome is being hailed favorably by all parties; "the most positive atmosphere in nearly a decade" ending with an agreement for diplomats to prepare "concrete proposals for resolving the impasse".

Netanyahu is ticked!

CNN:

Israel on Sunday slammed a decision by key world powers to place no new restrictions on Iran before the next meeting about its nuclear program in late May.

"My initial impression is that Iran has been given a freebie," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "It has got five weeks to continue enrichment without any limitation, any inhibition."

On Saturday, negotiators said "constructive and useful" talks had taken place in Istanbul.

"We have agreed that the Non-Proliferation Treaty forms a key basis for what must be serious engagement to ensure all the obligations under the treaty are met by Iran while fully respecting Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said following the meeting with Iran's top negotiator, Saeed Jalili."

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/p5-1-iran-nuclear-talks-went-swimmingly-netanyahu-is-fuming.html

[Scurrilous]

3. US, Israel's Netanyahu already are at odds over progress at Iran nuclear talks

<snip>

"Just two days after representatives of the United States and other key world powers met in Istanbul with Iran to discuss its nuclear program, Israel is throwing cold water on the effort, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charging that Iran was being given a "freebie."

Both U.S. and Iranian leaders expressed satisfaction with the initial meeting Saturday of talks between Iran and the P5+1 - the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. Both sides saw the agreement to meet again May 23 in Baghdad as a step forward after more than a year of no talks.

But Netanyahu was unimpressed. "My initial impression is that Iran has been given a freebie," Netanyahu said. "It has got five weeks to continue enrichment without any limitation, any inhibition."

President Barack Obama had defended the talks in comments to reporters Sunday in Cartagena, Colombia, where he was meeting with heads of state from Latin America. He called the talks "an opportunity for us to negotiate and see if Iran comes to the table in good faith."

"The notion that somehow we've given something away ... would indicate that Iran has gotten something," Obama said. "In fact, they've got some of the toughest sanctions that they're going to be facing coming up in just a few months if they don't take advantage of these talks. I hope they do."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/16/2752253/us-israels-netanyahu-already-are.html#storylink=cpy

[Jefferson23]

4. Well that is rich, Iran, in his extimation has been given a freebie, even with sanctions.

Yet his governments nuclear arsenal has not been given a freebie? He makes me laugh, once again.

[Mosby]

5. Juan Cole can write a long essay about irans nuclear weapons program

And not ONCE mention the IAEA.

That's a world class propagadist right there!