"Cabal" Blocked 2003 Nuclear Talks with Iran (Gareth Porter)

[laststeamtrain]

"Cabal" Blocked 2003 Nuclear Talks with Iran
Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON, Mar 28 (IPS) - The George W. Bush administration failed to enter into negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programme in May 2003 because neoconservative zealots who advocated destabilisation and regime change were able to block any serious diplomatic engagement with Tehran, according to former administration officials.

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The indictment of Iran analyst Larry Franklin on Feith's staff last year revealed that, by February 2003, Franklin had begun sharing a draft NSPD (National Security Policy Directive) that he knew would be to the liking of the Israeli Embassy.

<snip>

But it was impossible to get formal agreement on the NSPD, the source recalls, because officials in Cheney's office and in Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans wanted a policy of regime change and kept trying to amend it.

<snip>

By the end of May, the neoconservatives had succeeded in closing down the Geneva channel for good. They had hoped to push through their own NSPD on Iran, but according to the Franklin indictment, in October 1983, Franklin told an Israeli embassy officer that work on the NSPD had been stopped.

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32672

[bemildred]

1. Look, it isn't about the nukes, it's never been about the nukes.

It's about the oil.

[NanceGreggs]

2. Can't make nice in 2003 ...

... when you've already planned for war come 2006.

[leveymg]

3. Some very significant info here about the OSP-AIPAC case

Perhaps the best overview of the sabotage of US-Iranian relations by Israel that I've seen. It's becoming increasingly clear that the quagmire in Iraq, and U.S. casualties that resulted, were the result of an espionage and influence program carried out by Likud and its U.S. agents.

Read the whole thing.