WarSclerotic

Pete Hoekstra: Obama Using Iran as Distraction From Healthcare Mess.

( And now from the far right… – JW )

By Bill Hoffmann

Netanyahu Attack on Possible Iran Deal Risks Rift With U.S. – SFGate.

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a potential agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, which he denounced as a “very bad deal,” threatens to ignite the most serious U.S.-Israel dispute in years.

His public criticism follows a series of meetings on the topic with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who flew to Geneva today to join talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. They’re seeking to nail down the first step in an accord that would relieve some sanctions against Iran if it curtails certain nuclear activities.

The clash over Iran negotiations follows an effort by President Barack Obama to reassure Netanyahu of his support for Israel, including a trip there in March, after a series of disputes. Kerry’s talks with Netanyahu have sought to avoid a blanket rejection of initial moves toward a nuclear pact, which could fuel opponents in the U.S. Congress pressing to toughen sanctions.

Netanyahu told reporters today that Israel “utterly rejects” and “is not obliged by” an agreement that world powers and Iran are trying to put together. He spoke before a morning meeting with Kerry, who stopped in Tel Aviv from Jordan en route to Geneva for the nuclear talks.

“I understand that the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva, as well they should be, because they got everything and paid nothing,” Netanyahu said. “Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal. This is a very bad deal.”

‘Important Gaps’

Obama called Netanyahu today to discuss the Geneva talks and “underscored his strong commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which is the aim of the ongoing negotiations,” according to a White House statement.

Kerry, upon arriving in Switzerland, made a point of saying that negotiators hadn’t concluded a deal. Brent crude for December delivery rose for the first time in four days, gaining as much as 1.9 percent after Kerry said “some important gaps” remain.

“The tone of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments are sure to cause consternation in the White House,” Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. government Mideast policy official, said in an e-mail. “It is too early to say that it will lead to a rift; indeed I don’t think the White House wants that or is prepared to allow one to emerge.”

‘Significant Turbulence’

“But should they come to believe that Netanyahu is trying to mobilize American public opinion against the president’s policies, then there will be a real potential for significant turbulence in the relationship,” Danin said.

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, who has helped write sanctions legislation, said pressure will build in Congress to move ahead with added strictures against Iran because some allies consider a potential interim nuclear deal to be too weak.

“My sense is it’s going to be a very, very tough sell to hold off” congressional action on additional sanctions, “especially with the Israelis and the Saudis just completely freaking out,” said Dubowitz, who consults with the Obama administration and Congress on sanctions policy.

The Senate Banking Committee is preparing to discuss legislation imposing new curbs on Iran. Chairman Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, said in a statement that he hasn’t decided on timing for committee action.

Additional Sanctions

“I don’t know the outcome of negotiations now under way in Geneva, and I plan to wait to hear any results of those talks from our negotiators before making a final decision on any additional sanctions,” Johnson said.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in a statement today that “any agreement that does not require the full and complete halting of the Iranian nuclear program is worse than no deal at all.” Easing sanctions “without a guarantee that Iran will end its nuclear program is foolish,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon, a California Republican, said in a statement.

Groups that lobby on Iranian sanctions and nuclear proliferation spent $9.1 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to disclosure reports. The 31 organizations that listed Iran among their lobbying issues include the American Petroleum Institute and other oil industry groups.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has spent $2.2 million so far this year on lobbying. In each of this year’s disclosure forms, AIPAC has said it is lobbying on “economic and diplomatic tools to stop Iranian nuclear program.”

‘Best Chance’

Criticism of the Geneva negotiations risks derailing “the best chance to guard against a nuclear-armed Iran,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association.

“Unfortunately, some key players — including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and some members of Congress — are demanding much more from the talks and risk getting nothing,” Kimball said in an e-mail. “Demanding the perfect deal and getting nothing is reckless and dangerous.”

White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest said today it’s “premature” to criticize a deal that’s still being negotiated and that the U.S. and Israel are “in complete agreement” about keeping Iran from obtaining the capacity for nuclear weapons.

If an initial agreement provides relief from sanctions it would “be proportional to whatever concessions the Iranians themselves make” and “would be completely reversible,” Earnest told reporters.

Historic Mistake

Netanyahu says a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel’s survival. He said yesterday that moderating pressure on the Iranians would be a “mistake of historic proportions.” Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

The Israeli leader has urged the U.S. and five other powers taking part in the talks with Iran — France, Germany, the U.K., Russia and China — to reject any proposal unless it ensures a halt to all Iranian uranium enrichment and the construction of a plutonium-producing reactor.

The tensions over Iran have frayed relations that Netanyahu and the White House have worked to repair in recent months. The friction has also clouded Kerry-led efforts to negotiate an agreement to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu last month linked developments on Iran to progress on peacemaking with the Palestinians. He reinforced that linkage today in his remarks before meeting with Kerry, saying his refusal to “compromise on Israel’s security and our vital interests” extends to talks with the Palestinians.

‘Selling Out’

Iran has asserted its right to enrich uranium and has said it will accept tougher safeguards to meet international concerns while continuing some level of enrichment.

A public U.S.-Israeli dispute over an Iran deal could lead to the worst tensions between the allies since 1992, when then- Secretary of State James Baker said President George H.W. Bush wouldn’t approve $10 billion in loan guarantees to help house emigrating Soviet Jews unless Israel promised to halt settlement expansion. Before that dispute was resolved, some Israeli cabinet members said Bush was an anti-Semite and anti-Israel.

Netanyahu said today Israel’s concerns about the nature of an Iran deal are “shared by many, many in the region, whether or not they express that publicly.”

The “essence of the concern” is that “America is selling out too cheaply and it’s giving in, an extremely serious change in the whole balance of power in the region,” said Jonathan Rynhold, a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

–With assistance from Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Geneva, David Lerman and Julie Bykowicz in Washington and Moming Zhou in New York. Editors: Bob Drummond, Ben Holland

To contact the reporter on this story: Terry Atlas in Geneva at tatlas@bloomberg.net

Netanyahu Rejects Iran Deal, Israel-Palestine Too | MJ Rosenberg.

( Important to read what lefty, self-hating Jews write.  So many of them.  This one from Huffpo. – JW )

MJ Rosenberg

–

It has never been as clear as it is today that Americans who support a secure State of Israel have an obligation to oppose the Netanyahu government. That is not as daring as it sounds.
–
Opposing Prime Minister Netanyahu only requires backing the efforts of our own government to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian agreement and a nuclear deal with Iran. In the past few days Netanyahu has gone to war with the Obama administration on both fronts.

Secretary of State John Kerry never had much of a chance to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. The Netanyahu government could not withdraw from the West Bank even if it wanted to, given the composition of the far-right coalition Netanyahu heads. But the fact is, it doesn’t want to. At some point, Kerry’s attempt to bring Israelis and Palestinians together was destined to collapse over the settlement issue.

However, to nip any possible progress in the bud, Netanyahu this week announced plans for 3,500 new settler homes in the West Bank. In other words, rather than playing along with Kerry and letting the talks collapse later, Netanyahu is pulling the plug out before it’s even in the wall.

He is taking no chance that somehow progress toward peace could break out. As for the question of what Israel will do when the Palestinian population in Israel and the occupied territories outnumbers the Jewish population, that isn’t his problem. He sees his job as preserving his coalition, not the Jewish state.

Even more destructive to the future of Israel is Netanyahu’s flat out rejection (in advance) of the agreement to end the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear development. President Obama, seizing the opportunity presented by the election of a pragmatic moderate as president of Iran, has come up with a formula under which Iran will put its nuclear program on hold for six months in exchange for the United States relaxing financial sanctions on Iran. It’s a first step designed to give both sides a half year to work out a comprehensive deal.

Netanyahu could not wait for the agreement to be announced before saying no. He went before the cameras to declare that Israel “utterly rejects” the agreement and does not consider itself bound by it. He does not want any sanctions on Iran lifted until its government fully complies, in advance, with the demand that Iran dismantle all aspects of its nuclear program. Israel, of course, has nuclear weapons while Iran doesn’t and Obama is working to ensure it never gets them.

It’s not hard to see that Netanyahu’s goal is not so much ending any Iranian nuclear threat as in ensuring that Iran is unable to assert any kind of leadership role in the region. And he believes that goal can only be achieved through military means, either an Israeli attack on Iran or, preferably, a U.S. war on the Islamic Republic.

Although top security analysts in both the United States and Israel agree that a military attack on Iran might not only fail to achieve its goals but could also engulf the region (including Israel, of course) in another war, Netanyahu is steadfast. He “utterly rejects” negotiations.

Of course, it is not likely he can stop a deal although it is obvious what his plan is. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has already announced its plans to sabotage an agreement by getting Congress to enact additional sanctions on Iran at the same time that Obama is offering to lift them. Given that we are already in the 2014 Congressional campaign, Netanyahu assumes that he can count on beneficiaries of the lobby’s financial generosity to do what AIPAC tells them to do. In short, he is counting on AIPAC and its loyalists in Congress to play the role that is commonly ascribed to the “mullahs” in Iran: preventing peace by using its supreme power.

Friends of Israel need to ask what will happen if Netanyahu succeeds in his efforts to destroy chances for both an Israeli-Palestinian and a U.S.-Iranian agreement.

How long can Israel survive like this? How long can it continue to count on U.S. aid while it thwarts U.S. diplomatic efforts designed not only to help secure Israel but to preserve and protect U.S. interests in the Middle East?

As was demonstrated by the struggle over aid to the Syrian opposition, Americans across the political spectrum reject the idea of U.S. involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts. Lay aside the economic costs, think about the Americans who end up fighting and dying (or, often almost as bad, being grievously wounded) in these wars that can be avoided. Successive U.S. presidents have viewed continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a threat to America’s interests. As for war with Iran, the war Netanyahu seems to prefer to a negotiated peace, that threat to Americans could not be more direct.

And then there is Israel itself. It took Jews 1900 years to re-establish statehood in Palestine. That state can be secured forever by an agreement with Palestinians to divide the land basically along the ’67 lines. Similarly, endorsing America’s effort to achieve an agreement with Iran can help eliminate the threat to Israel from the one regional power capable of posing one (Egypt and Jordan are at peace with Israel while even Syria has maintained the peace since 1973).

Sad to say, it is Netanyahu himself who poses the greatest threat to Israel. Fifty years before Israel was created, Theodor Herzl said, “if you will it, it is no dream.” Netanyahu seems hell bent to turn that dream, the one that was miraculously realized in 1948, to a nightmare. Hopefully, the United States will not permit that to happen.

World powers set for new round of Iran nuke talks | The Times of Israel.

As an optimistic Lavrov flies into Geneva hoping for a ‘lasting result,’ ‘disappointed’ diplomats say meetings likely to extend into next week

By AP and Times of Israel staff November 9, 2013, 10:06 am

US Secretary of State John Kerry, center, returns to his hotel following his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

GENEVA — As US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton were preparing for another day of nuclear negotiations with Iran, the Los Angeles Times reported talks were likely to spill over into next week.

Citing “disappointed” diplomats, the Times said a signing ceremony was not likely to take place on Saturday, even as P5+1 leaders were gearing up for another day of meetings aimed at narrowing gaps in search of a deal that would offer Iran sanctions relief in exchange for proving its atomic ambitions are peaceful.

Russia remained more optimistic regarding the talks, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flying into Geneva on Saturday to attend the sessions Moscow hopes will produce “a lasting result the entire world has been waiting for.”

Russia’s news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that Russia’s level of representation at the meeting will be raised to ministerial.

Lavrov will accompany Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Ashton in the negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over Iran’s unsanctioned nuclear program.

A senior US official said Kerry and Ashton were to meet separately at the luxury Geneva hotel where they are both staying on Saturday morning before inviting Zarif to join them. There was no immediate indication of how long the three-way meeting would last. On Friday, the trio met for five hours.

The negotiations appear to have made some progress in a major diplomatic push despite fierce opposition from Israel and uncertainty in Congress.

Only China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi wasn’t expected to take part in the summit on Saturday. A Western diplomat in Geneva told The Associated Press that China is sending a deputy foreign minister to the talks.

“The meeting was productive but we still have more to do,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, confirming talks would continue on Saturday.

According to NBC, Friday’s snap arrival of so many high ranking officials “sparked a high level of anticipation in Geneva, with increased security, including bomb-sniffing dogs, and an influx of the world’s media.”

Officials had reported progress in Thursday’s talks. But comments from Kerry and his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany after they arrived in Geneva clearly indicated that obstacles remain in the way of any agreement offering sanctions reductions for nuclear concessions.

Israeli officials nonetheless criticized US President Barack Obama and the US government as though a deal with Iran was fait accompli, saying the president “is bringing about a disaster,” Channel 10 reported. The anonymous sources contended that Obama is pressured to arrive at a deal with the Iranians and wants to get the issue off the agenda.

Iran considers Russia most receptive to its arguments among the six world powers. For that reason, Lavrov’s presence would add additional muscle to efforts to seal a preliminary deal that the West hopes will culminate with serious constraints on Iran’s ability to turn a peaceful nuclear program into making weapons.

The talks primarily focus on the size and output of Iran’s enrichment program, which can create both reactor fuel and weapons-grade material suitable for a nuclear bomb. Iran insists it is pursuing only nuclear energy, medical treatments and research, but the United States and its allies fear that Iran could turn this material into the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Kerry said there were “some very important issues on the table that are unresolved.”

“There is not an agreement at this point in time,” he told reporters.

In earlier comments to Israeli television, Kerry suggested Washington was looking for an Iranian commitment to stop any expansion of nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons, as a first step.

“We are asking them to step up and provide a complete freeze over where they are today,” Kerry said Thursday.

Six powers are considering a gradual rollback of sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. In exchange they demand initial curbs on Iran’s nuclear program, including a cap on enrichment to a level that can be turned quickly to weapons use.

The six have discussed ending a freeze on up to $50 billion (37 billion euros) in overseas accounts and lifting restrictions on petrochemicals, gold and other precious metals. But their proposal would maintain core sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and financial sector, as an incentive for Iran to work toward a comprehensive and permanent nuclear accord.

According to Channel 10, the deal in the works would have the Iranians halt uranium enrichment to 20 percent purity, and their existing stocks of 20% would be converted to fuel rods; enrichment to 3.5% purity would be able to continue at Natanz and Qom. Further, operations at the Arak heavy water reactor would have to cease. In exchange, the channel reported, the Iranians would have sanctions lifted on petrochemical products, gold, auto and airplane parts, and assets worth $3 billion would be unfrozen.

Tehran could be pressing for more significant relief from the sanctions as part of any first-step deal. Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Iranian delegation member Majid Takht-e Ravanchi as saying his country was asking for an end to sanctions on oil and international banking transactions crippling the ability to repatriate money from oil sales.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the first to arrive at the talks, spoke of progress, but told reporters “nothing is hard and fast yet.”

“I’ve come to Geneva to take part in the negotiations because the talks are difficult but important for regional and international security,” he said. “We are working to reach an accord which completes the first step to respond to Iran’s nuclear program.”

Israel has been watching the talks warily from the sidelines. It has frequently dangled the prospect of military action against Iran should negotiations fail to reach the deal it seeks — a total shutdown of uranium enrichment and other nuclear programs Tehran says are peaceful but which could technically be turned toward weapons.

“I understand the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva as well they should because they got everything and paid nothing,” Netanyahu told reporters before meeting Kerry in Tel Aviv.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said an initial agreement would “address Iran’s most advanced nuclear activities; increase transparency so Iran will not be able to use the cover of talks to advance its program; and create time and space as we negotiate a comprehensive agreement.”

US, French officials: Iran nuclear negotiations have reached an abrupt halt | JPost | Israel News.

After two days of negotiating with help from US secretary of state, French FM says no certainty of concluding talks; US diplomats tell ‘LA Times’ talks will at least continue until next week over disagreements in text.

PARIS- France said on Saturday there was no certainty nuclear talks under way with Iran in Geneva would succeed because of major stumbling blocks over an initial proposed text on a deal.

“As I speak to you, I can not say there is any certainty that we can conclude” the talks, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France Inter radio.

Meanwhile, Western diplomats say they are disappointed at the progress of nuclear negotiations in Geneva, and expect discussions to continue at least until next week, Los Angeles Time reported on Friday.

Unnamed diplomats from Washington did not tell the Times why the talks had come to a halt, but the paper speculated that the disagreement could be over Iran’s construction of a plutonium reactor, a direct path to a nuclear bomb.

Part of the proposed agreement between Iran and the international community is that they would agree not to activate the reactor while an interim deal is in place.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and Chief Negotiator Abbas Araghchi was also skeptical about the success of the current talks, saying “negotiations have reached [a] critical, very sensitive situation, and it needs decisions at higher levels.”

‘Crisis of faith’ between Israel and US over possible Iran deal | The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu ‘in a state of shock’ over terms, believes agreement would enable Iran to become ‘nuclear breakout state,’ TV reports say; deal seen as putting an end to any Israeli military option

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama end a joint press conference in Jerusalem on March 20, 2013. (Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “in a state of shocked disbelief” at the deal apparently taking shape in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli television news reports said Friday night.

Netanyahu, the reports on Israel’s Channel 10 and Channel 2 news said, had “an unprecedented confrontation” with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Tel Aviv on Friday morning over the possible deal, which he publicly described as “a very, very bad deal” and which he implored Kerry “not to rush to sign” and to “reconsider.”

The Netanyahu government is “in a crisis of faith” with the Obama administration over the possible deal, Israel’s Channel 1 News further reported, in part because it apparently differs in content from the terms that Kerry had previously described to Netanyahu. Other Israeli reports said Netanyahu felt he had been “misled” by the US over the terms of the deal.

Netanyahu, who blasted the possible accord as the “deal of the century” for Iran, believes it would enable the Islamic Republic to become a “nuclear breakout state,” the TV reports said — since Iran would retain its nuclear enrichment capabilities, and would thus be capable of racing to a bomb at short notice at a time of its choosing.

Israel, the TV reports said, also believes the US has been negotiating with Iran in a secret channel, without disclosing the content of those discussions to Israel.

The TV reports quoted unnamed sources on the Israeli political right accusing the Obama administration of “throwing Israel under the bus,” and leaning toward an agreement with Iran that would fatally puncture the carefully constructed international sanctions regime against Iran.

A series of analysts on the Friday night Israeli TV news broadcasts also assessed that Israel could not possibly strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities itself if the international community finalizes the mooted deal in Geneva. Israel “has no more military option,” a Channel 10 news analyst stated flatly, despite Netanyahu’s public declaration after his meeting with Kerry Friday morning that “Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself.” The report also said Vice President Joe Biden had recently assured President Barack Obama that Netanyahu would not strike at Iran.

“Netanyahu is in a state of shocked disbelief” at the imminent deal, Channel 10 news reported. It said the prime minister had not believed that a significant easing of sanctions was on the table in Geneva, but now was horrified to see that the emerging deal provided for a dramatic easing of sanctions against a mere Iranian promise to restrict uranium enrichment to 3.5%.

In his public comments Friday, a clearly agitated Netanyahu said that, under the deal, “Iran gets everything it wanted at this stage and pays nothing.”

Netanyahu — who in a clear sign of the Israel-US crisis, delivered the remarks alone, rather than at a traditional joint appearance with the visiting Kerry — added: “I urge Secretary Kerry not to rush to sign, to wait, to reconsider.”

The Channel 10 report said Israel’s security establishment was also “shocked” at the reported terms.

Kerry headed from Israel to Geneva, to take an unscheduled role in the nuclear talks there. Hours after he left, Obama spoke with Netanyahu by phone and was said to have underscored Washington’s “strong commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

According to Britain’s Telegraph, the Iranian deal’s four main points are that Iran would stop enriching uranium to 20 percent and convert its existing stockpile into harmless uranium oxide. Iran would be able to continue enrichment to 3.5% purity necessary for nuclear power plants — but would agree to limit the number of centrifuges running for this purpose. The inactive centrifuges would be able to remain intact. Iran would also agree not to activate its plutonium reactor at Arak, which could provide an alternative route to a nuclear weapon, during the six-month period in which Iran would limit uranium enrichment to 3.5%. Lastly, Iran would agree not to use the advanced IR-2 centrifuges, which enrich uranium three to five times faster than the older model.

In return, the British paper reported, the US “would ease economic sanctions, possibly by releasing some Iranian foreign exchange reserves currently held in frozen accounts” and ease “some restrictions on Iran’s petrochemical, motor and precious metals industries.”

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 Thursday, Kerry stressed the negotiators in Geneva were requiring Iran to “provide a complete freeze over where they are today.” He argued that it was “better” to be talking to Iran, and seeking to “expand” the time it would take Iran to break out to the bomb, than not to be talking to Iran, and have it continuing to advance its nuclear program. “We have not taken away any of the sanctions yet,” Kerry said. “We will not undo the major sanctions regime until we have absolute clarity,” he said.

Exclusive: Obama’s Secret Iran Détente – The Daily Beast.

by Eli Lake, Josh Rogin Nov 8, 2013 5:45 AM EST

Long before a nuclear deal was in reach, the U.S. was quietly lifting some of the financial pressure on Iran, a Daily Beast investigation reveals. How the sanctions were softened.

The Obama administration began softening sanctions on Iran after the election of Iran’s new president in June, months before the current round of nuclear talks in Geneva or the historic phone call between the two leaders in September.

While those negotiations now appear on the verge of a breakthrough the key condition for Iran—relief from crippling sanctions—began quietly and modestly five months ago.

A review of Treasury Department notices reveals that the U.S. government has all but stopped the financial blacklisting of entities and people that help Iran evade international sanctions since the election of its president, Hassan Rouhani, in June.

On Wednesday Obama said in an interview with NBC News the negotiations in Geneva “are not about easing sanctions.” “The negotiations taking place are about how Iran begins to meet its international obligations and provide assurances not just to us but to the entire world,” the president said.

But it has also long been Obama’s strategy to squeeze Iran’s economy until Iran would be willing to trade relief from sanctions for abandoning key elements of its nuclear program.

One way Obama has pressured Iran is through isolating the country’s banks from the global financial sector, the networks that make modern international commerce possible. This in turn has led Iran to seek out front companies and cutouts to conduct routine international business, such as selling its crude oil.

In this cat and mouse game, the Treasury Department in recent years has routinely designated new entities as violators of sanctions, forcing Iran to adjust in turn. In the six weeks prior to the Iranian elections in June, the Treasury Department issued seven notices of designations of sanctions violators that included more than 100 new people, companies, aircraft, and sea vessels.

Since June 14, however, when Rouhani was elected, the Treasury Department has only issued two designation notices that have identified six people and four companies as violating the Iran sanctions.

When an entity is designated as a sanctions violator it can be catastrophic. Banks and other investors almost never take the risk of doing business with the people and companies on a Treasury blacklist because of the potential reputational harm and the prospect they could lose access to U.S. financial markets.

“Sounds like Obama decided to enter the Persian nuclear bazaar to haggle with the masters of negotiation.”

A Treasury spokesman contacted by The Daily Beast said the effectiveness of sanctions should be measured by their results and not the number of entities designated. (A White House spokesman declined to comment, directing inquiries to the Treasury.) The Treasury spokesman also said that the significant financial pressure on Iran in recent years changed the calculus of the country’s leaders and led to the election of Rouhani, who is a former nuclear negotiator and is considered more moderate than his predecessor.

“In the months since the Iranian election we have continued to pursue our unwavering goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” the spokesman said. “We have not let up on vigorous sanctions enforcement one iota. This includes new designations of sanctions evaders as well as other steps to address potential sanctions evasion.”

But the enforcement of sanctions, experts said, is very different than the process of designating new violators. To start, sanctions enforcement means the levying of fines or other legal measures against those people and entities already designated by the Treasury Department as a violator.

The designation process is more proactive. “The designations are important because they identify illicit actors that are abusing the international financial sector in addition to signaling the U.S. intention to isolate Iran’s economy,” said Avi Jorisch, a former U.S. Treasury official who has worked closely on Iran sanctions and has advocated for toughening these sanctions since leaving government.

Advocates of sanctions relief also acknowledge that the administration has pursued a policy of quietly lessening financial pressure on Iran. They argue that was a logical policy when married to the process of renewing diplomatic negotiations with Iran, which according to the Wall Street Journal this week, has been going on for several months.

“Before the election there were a lot of these designations,” said Trita Parsi, the executive director of the National Iranian American Council, a group that has advocated for ending sanctions on Iran since. “Their impact was probably not decisive, but it was a way for the White House to signal to the Iranians and Congress they were going forward with the sanctions train.” Parsi continued: “After the election [the Obama administration] wanted to give the opposite signal, a pause. The last thing you would want to do is let the sanctions train go forward and potentially scuttle an opportunity that could have been there.”

Following the Iranian elections, there were also a lot of changes inside the Iranian government, making the task of designating officials and entities a bit more tricky, Parsi said. But a significant part of the administration’s decision, in Parsi’s opinion, was the belief that continuing a high pace of designations would “undermine the signal that they were trying to send, that there was an opening.”

Mark Dubowitz, the executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, an organization that has worked closely with Congress and the administration on devising the current Iranian sanctions, said the slow pace of designations was only one kind of sanctions relief Obama has been offering Iran.

“For five months, since Rouhani’s election, the United States has offered Iran two major forms of sanctions relief,” Dubowitz said. “First there’s been a significant slowdown in the pace of designations while the Iranians are proliferating the number of front companies and cutouts to bust sanctions.”

The second kind of relief Dubowitz said the White House had offered Iran was through its opposition to new Iran sanctions legislation supported by both parties in Congress.

By Dubowitz’s estimates, Iran is now selling between 150,000 and 200,000 barrels of oil per day on the black market, meaning that Iran has profited from the illicit sale of over 35 million barrels of oil since Rouhani took office, with little additional measures taken by the United States to counter it.

“Sounds like Obama decided to enter the Persian nuclear bazaar to haggle with the masters of negotiation and has had his head handed to him,” Dubowitz said.

Will Obama Let Iran Hit the Trifecta? – Bloomberg.

Shameless appeasement of Iran – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: It is morally disgraceful for US president to pressure Jews to turn their back on Israeli concerns

Shoula Romano Horing

While the Iranians are continuing installing hundreds of new advanced centrifuges every month, the Obama administration has been pressuring US Jewish organizations to stop lobbying in support of US legislation to tighten the economic sanctions against Iran, turn their back on Israeli concerns, and side with President Obama’s wishful thinking of a possible diplomatic solution with Iran.

It is quite disturbing for the president to ask any US organization to turn against a democratic ally for the sake of appeasing and accommodating a dictatorship and longtime enemy. But it is morally disgraceful to pressure Jews to turn their back on the Jewish state when Israel will be on the front line of possible nuclear annihilation by an enemy which has publicly stated its sinister intentions.

It is quite unscrupulous to ask Jews who live with the legacy of the Holocaust to be an accomplice to the culmination of the Iranian nuclear weapon program by agreeing to give more time for negotiations with President Rohani, who has boasted of using previous negotiations with the West as a delaying tactic. But it is quite shameless to ask US Jewish leaders to repeat a dark chapter of their history and be silent again and do nothing to save their own fellow Jews as they did during World War II in order to save face with another US president.

The Obama administration is pressuring Jewish organizations to stall action on the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, a vital economic sanctions bill that has already passed the GOP-controlled House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support and is currently awaiting further action by the Senate Banking Committee.

It was reported that on October 29 the White House arranged a last-minute meeting with a group of Jewish leaders from organizations that previously challenged the Obama policy on Iran by supporting imposing further sanctions while excluding from the meeting those left leaning organizations who have been already on board. The meeting was arranged amid an escalation of signals that the Obama and Netanyahu governments are parting ways on Iran strategy.

The Jewish organizations must say no to Obama’s outrageous pressure and follow the lessons we were forced to learn from our history that appeasing and accommodating evil lead only to more evil toward our people.

It’s 1939 all over again

It seems Obama wants again to improve the atmosphere for the next round of the negotiations with Iran. Despite the Obama administration’s insistence that the negotiations in October went well, in reality those discussions did not produce any substantive progress other than superficial niceties such as a report that the Iranian chief negotiator spoke for the first time to the other participants in English rather than in Farsi, nothing was achieved. While Obama is worrying about atmosphere, it seems the Iranians are using the time to rush towards the finish line.

The Washington based Institute for Science and International Security, claimed on October 23 that Iran is now capable of producing enough weapons grade uranium for a nuclear bomb in as little as a month. According to the ISS, which has tracked Iran’s nuclear program for several years, Iran has significantly shortened the time needed to “break out” to a nuclear bomb with the installation of new centrifuges in the Fordo and Natanz plants. On October 28, Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Association, said that Iran could actually produce enough weapons grade uranium for a nuclear weapon within two weeks.

These recent reports about Iran’s breakout capacity show that the Obama administration is running out of time for talk with Iran and the only way to stop them is by force. Delaying lobbying efforts by Jewish organizations will only give more time for Obama and Kerry to be sucked into another Iranian attempt to run out the clock while talking and empower Obama to strike a bad deal to avoid confrontation.

The US resolve to confront Iran into freezing enrichment and dismantling its nuclear program has been weakening. The New York Times reported that National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s new Middle East policy envisions a nuclear deal with Iran and includes no demands that Iran suspend nuclear enrichment.

Secretary of State Kerry, in comments widely interpreted as a rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a fear monger, belittled Israeli urgent concerns about an imminent nuclear Iran saying that he has no patience for those warning about the dangers of these diplomatic talks saying that “we will not succumb to those fear tactics and forces that suggest otherwise.”

It is 1939 all over again. Then and now the US policy of staying away from confronting evil in favor of isolationism is bad news for the Jews.

A report published in Haaretz on November 1, claiming that US Jewish leaders have agreed to halt their lobbying efforts in support of a new sanctions bill against Iran, has been roundly denied by these organizations.

Hopefully, the Jewish organizations that care about Israeli survival are aware of the potentially disastrous consequences for Israel of giving Iran more time.

Shoula Romano Horing is an attorney. Her website: www.shoularomanohoring.com

America’s Plan to Reward Iran, Without Lifting Sanctions – Bloomberg.