WarSclerotic

Fla. Governor orders investigation of terror-tied CAIR Sheriff Scott Israel whose deputies did nothing during school shootout yet he provided weapons training to radical mosque

By Pamela Geller – on February 26, 2018

Fla. Governor orders investigation of terror-tied CAIR Sheriff Scott Israel whose deputies did nothing during school shootout yet he provided weapons training to radical mosque

CAIR: Terror in the USA 2018

“The Sheriff was or should have been aware of the threat Cruz presented to his community and chose to ignore it,” Hager wrote, referring to a long history of warnings and tips to the sheriff’s office over the past decade, including ones suggesting Cruz had fire arms and was planning a school shooting.

In his letter, Hager, a Republican, cited Florida statute 112.52, which he says gives Scott “removal authority for neglect of duty and incompetence.”

Contact Governor Rick Scott (850) 488-7146 and politely insist that this incompetent tool be removed for the safety of all Floridians.

Email Governor Scott – do it. Emails are made public so write carefully and unemotionally (if possible).

More Broward County deputies are under investigation for their response to the high school shooting in South Florida that left 17 dead, and it’s leaving the department on the defensive as more accusations are made public.

The department is investigating a claim that several deputies stayed outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., during the response to the mass shooting instead of immediately going inside. Already, Sheriff Scott Israel has said the first deputy there, the school’s resource officer, did not go inside even though the gunman was actively shooting.

The investigation became public after several media reports, citing unnamed officials in the nearby Coral Springs Police Department, said officers who responded to the Feb. 14 shooting were concerned because Broward deputies did not immediately enter the building to help those who had been injured inside.

Long time Geller Report readers were warned about Sheriff Israel and his terror-tied department for years.

Back in 2015 I reported on the terror-tied CAIR Leader Nezar Hamze being appointed deputy s heriff by Sheriff Scott Israel . The same Sheriff Israel whose department stood down and hid while children were being shot up in school by a psychopath. Instead, Israel sanctioned CAIR sheriff Hamze teaching radical mosque how to use guns.

Terror-tied Broward Sheriff is railing about gun control but provided weapons training to radical mosque linked to terrorist faction.

Anther highlight of Sheriff Scott Israel’s career:

Sheriff, Israel has made it a point to reach out to diverse crowds, including those who could be considered enemies of the U.S. and her allies.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel’s 2015 radical Muslim tour began in 2015, when he posed for photos with Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout and a member of Zakkout’s Miami-based AMANA group at a local mosque. Zakkout is a big supporter of Hamas. On his Facebook page, one can find Hamas logos and photos of Hamas militants and leaders, including Hamas founders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi and deceased Hamas bomb maker Yehiya Ayyash.

In July 2014, Zakkout organized a pro-Hamas rally held in Downtown Miami, where the crowd chanted loudly a number of anti-Jewish and pro-Hamas slogans. Zakkout is shown on video with a huge grin on his face, as his mob repeatedly screams, “We are Hamas.” Following the rally, Zakkout wrote in Arabic on his Facebook page, “Thank God, every day we conquer the American Jews like our conquests over the Jews of Israel!”

CAIR-tied law enforcement officials are dirty. Who can forget Los Angeles Sheriff Baca, another CAIR plant. He plead guilty to corruption charges and is currently serving three years.

The UAE has designated CAIR a terrorist organization. The United States government named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist funding trial in our nation’s history. And recently, another Florida CAIR leader was jailed in a major child sex trafficking ring.

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is routinely presented in the mainstream media as a civil rights organization. Its consistent pattern of encouraging Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement is never mentioned. Reporters citing CAIR as a source or authority almost always fail to mention that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. During that case, a captured internal document of the Muslim Brotherhood was released, naming CAIR’s parent organization, the Islamic Association for Palestine, as one of its allied groups, and explaining that the mission of Brotherhood groups in the U.S. was “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements. CAIR has opposed every anti-terror measure that has ever been proposed or implemented. Its California chapter distributed the poster above telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI, and its officials have told Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement.

Governor orders investigation of response to Florida shooting

CNN, By Kelly McCleary, CNN:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday ordered an investigation into the response to the deadly shooting two weeks ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School “for there to be full accountability.”

Scott directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to “immediately investigate the law enforcement response,” according to a statement, amid growing criticism of how the Broward County Sheriff’s Office handled the shooting in Parkland on February 14.

In a statement, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said his department “will fully cooperate” with the probe, “as we believe in full transparency and accountability.

Florida Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran and dozens of lawmakers have called on Scott to suspend Israel for “incompetence and dereliction of duty.” Scott didn’t say in his statement that he would suspend Israel, but said he will continue to review the matter. The governor said he has spoken to Corcoran regularly since the shooting, “and like me he wants the families to have answers and for there to be full accountability.”

“That’s what the victims and their families deserve,” the governor said in the statement.

Earlier Sunday, Israel said he will not step down. Florida state representative Bill Hager wrote a letter to Scott the day before, asking the governor to remove Israel from his post for his deputies’ “incomprehensible inaction” during the massacre,according to Hager’s office.

An investigation “by Sheriff Israel will do nothing to bring back the 17 victims,” that confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz killed, Hager wrote.

“The Sheriff was or should have been aware of the threat Cruz presented to his community and chose to ignore it,” Hager wrote, referring to a long history of warnings and tips to the sheriff’s office over the past decade, including ones suggesting Cruz had fire arms and was planning a school shooting.

In his letter, Hager, a Republican, cited Florida statute 112.52, which he says gives Scott “removal authority for neglect of duty and incompetence.”

Israel dismissed Hager’s accusations, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper, “Of course I won’t resign.”

“It was a shameful letter. It was politically-motivated. I never met that man. He doesn’t know anything about me. And the letter was full of misinformation,” Israel said Sundayon CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Hager’s call for Israel’s removal came after the armed school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Deputy Scot Peterson, resigned Thursday following his suspension amid accusations he did nothing to stop the massacre.

Read the transcript of the interview with Sheriff Israel

Israel says Peterson never went into building where the shooter was firing at students, instead taking a position outside.

In a letter of response to the governor, Israel said he was proud of the work that many of his deputies and other agencies did the day of the shooting and that he was appalled by Hager’s “need to engage in disingenuous political grandstanding, perhaps in the hope he will garner some headlines, at the expense of the truth.”

He also said that Hager’s letter “was riddled with factual errors, unsupported gossip, and falsehoods.”

Hager was among 73 Republican lawmakers who, along with Corcoran, asked the governor to suspend Israel.

“The failures of Sheriff Israel and his deputies during and after the horrific shooting … and their failures to intervene regarding Nikolas Jacob Cruz in the years, months, and days leading up to that shooting, are unacceptable and unforgivable,” Corcoran wrote.

“Sheriff Israel failed to maintain a culture of alertness, vigilance, and thoroughness amongst his deputies. … As a result of Sheriff Israel’s failures. students and teachers died.” the letter said.

Deputy suspended

Israel made the decision to suspend Peterson — who was armed and in uniform at the time of the shooting — after interviewing the deputy and reviewing footage and witness statements, he said.

“What I saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of building 12, take up a position,” Israel said of the video. “And he never went in.”

Israel told reporters Peterson should have “[w]ent in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.” Instead, the deputy waited outside for about four minutes.

During that time, Israel said, Peterson got on his radio and took a position where he could see the western entry of the building.

Other deputies may have also been outside school

Israel says his department is also looking into reports that at least three other Broward Sheriff’s deputies didn’t enter the school building during shooting.

Sources tell CNN the Coral Springs officers arrived at the scene and were surprised to find the three deputies behind their vehicles with their pistols drawn. None of them had gone into the school.

Israel says his department will investigate the Coral Springs officers’ claims, but insists that “during this horrific attack, while this killer was inside the school, there was only one law enforcement person, period. And that was our former deputy Scot Peterson.”

Israel says his department’s investigation so far indicates the Coral Springs officers didn’t arrive until about four minutes after Cruz had left the campus.

“At this point, we have no reason to believe anyone acted incorrectly or correctly. That’s what an investigation is. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but nobody is entitled to their own set of facts,” Israel says. “At this point, one deputy was remiss…and he’s now no longer with this agency.”

A report on what Coral Springs officers observed is expected next week. Sources caution that surveillance video is currently being reviewed and official accounts could ultimately differ from recollections of officers on the scene.

Sgt. Carla Kmiotek, public information officer for the Coral Springs Police Department, would not comment on the reports. “The Coral Springs Police Department will speak on behalf of our officers and their response in that incident,” she said. ” We will not speak on behalf of Broward Sheriff’s deputies and their response to the incident.”

“Our police department has continued to work alongside the Broward Sheriff’s Office to assist in any investigation pertaining to this incident,” the department said later in a statement. “The Coral Springs Police Department has a tremendous working relationship with the men and women of the Broward Sheriff’s Office, and while we are being transparent through this investigation, everyone should respect the process.”

‘School shooter in the making’: Missed opportunities

Israel is also under fire for what appear to be several missed opportunities to intervene before Cruz opened fire.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office says it received 23 calls related to Cruz or his brother in the past decade.

Two deputies have been placed on restricted duty pending an internal investigation on how they addressed the warnings, Israel says. Two calls in particular are under review: one from February 5, 2016, and another from November 30 of last year.

In the 2016 call, officers received information from a neighbor’s son that Cruz planned to “shoot up” an unknown school. There was a picture of a “juvenile with guns” on Instagram, according to police records.

In that case, a deputy responded and determined Cruz had knives and a BB gun. The information was forwarded to a school resource officer, police records show.

In the report three months before the shooting, a caller warned that Cruz was collecting guns and knives and wanted to join the Army. The person who called in that November 2017 tip said Cruz was suicidal and could be a “school shooter in the making,” according to police records.

The report said that officers at the time did not write a report on the tip. Cruz was no longer living at the listed Parkland address and lived in Lake Worth, Florida, according to police records. The deputy referred the caller to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Israel acknowledges there “needed to be a report” on the call, “And that’s what we’re looking into. That a report needed to be completed, it needed to be forwarded to our Homeland Security or violent crimes unit and they would’ve followed up on it.”

When asked about the 23 calls regarding Cruz, Israel tells CNN, “On sixteen of those cases, our deputies did everything right.”

“I can only take responsibility for what I knew about. I exercised my due diligence. I’ve given amazing leadership to this agency,” Israel says.

 

While Trump recognizes Israel as a unique ally, his determination to move the embassy aims at advancing US interests, rather than taking a pro-Israel stand.

By: Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://unitedwithisrael.org

The US decision to comply with the law of the land – the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act – recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocating the US Embassy there, enhances the US posture of deterrence, in defiance of threats and pressure, while walking against the grain.

This reasserts the independence of US unilateral diplomatic action, rather than subordinate US interests to multilateral diplomacy, which tends to undermine US interests. Moreover, it challenges the political correctness of the UN, the Department of State and the “elite” media, which have been serial blunderers on Middle East issues.

While President Donald Trump recognizes Israel as a unique ally, strategically and morally – in an explosive region and during an unpredictably violent era – his determination to remedy this 70-year-old faulty policy aims at advancing US interests, rather than demonstrate pro-Israel sentiments.

The relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem reflects the realization that retreat in the face of threats and pressure intensifies anti-US policies, aggression and terrorism, while defiance of pressure is a prerequisite for the rehabilitation of deterrence, a precondition to peace and security.

US procrastination on the implementation of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act did not advance the cause of peace.  Rather, intensified Palestinian expectations forced them to outflank the US from the radical side and therefore, added another obstacle on the road to peace.

The relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem should not undermine the peace process, since the Embassy will be located in an area which was controlled by Israel before the eruption of the 1967 Six Day War.

The relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem represents the American ethos – from the Early Pilgrims through the Founding Fathers – which has considered Greater Jerusalem the undivided capital of the Jewish Commonwealth.  Hence, the 18 US towns names Jerusalem and the 32 named Salem (the original Biblical name of Jerusalem).

The relocation of the US Embassy will implement the 1995 legislation, which has enjoyed much support on, and off, Capitol Hill, but was sacrificed – until January 2017 – by the US Administration on the altar of false/faulty national security considerations. A waiver was introduced into the language of the law, as a result of pressure by then President Clinton, which was seconded by the late Prime Minister Rabin.

In July, 1999, a veto-override majority of 84 Senators supported proposed legislation, which would force implementation of the legislation by eliminating the presidential waiver.  But, a coalition of President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak convinced the Senators to shelve it, contending that the cause of peace must not be sacrificed on the altar of Jerusalem.

However, reality has documented that they sacrificed reality and Jerusalem on the altar of wishful-thinking and a failed peace process, which collapsed during Prime Minister Barak’s tenure, accompanied by an unprecedented wave of Palestinian terrorism.

Appeasement of Rogue Elements Intensifies Violence

Apparently, President Trump is determined to avoid – rather than repeat – the mistakes of his predecessors, fending off pressure and threats by rogue regimes, and therefore advancing US interests, law and heritage.

In December, 1949, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s Founding Father, annexed Western Jerusalem, declared it the capital of the newly-born Jewish State, relocated the Knesset (legislature) and Cabinet headquarters to Jerusalem and built Jewish neighborhoods on the ceasefire line in Jerusalem.  Ben Gurion acted in stark defiance of brutal pressure by the US State Department and most of the global community, which considered the whole of JerUSAlem Corpus Separatum, an international city.

Ben Gurion’s steadfastness, under horrific odds, undermined his short-term popularity, but greatly enhanced Israel’s long-term posture of deterrence, national security and respect, and earned him eternal acclaim.

Will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu follow in the footsteps of Prime Minister Ben Gurion in the pursuit of Israel’s long-term national security – walking against the grain and defying conventional “wisdom” – rather than fishing for short-term popularity through land concessions, which would expose Israel to lethal threats?

Source: The Ettinger Report

Ahead of AIPAC conference, push to tighten noose on IRGC, send weapons to Israel

US President Donald Trump sits beside National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster / Getty Images

BY: Adam Kredo Follow @Kredo0
February 26, 2018 5:00 am

Trump Admin to Reverse Obama Deal to Loosen Sanctions on Iranian Terrorists

U.S. officials are finalizing a new effort to crackdown on Iran’s top terror organization as part of an effort to reverse sweeping sanctions originally granted by the Obama administration as part of a little known deal to enrich entities tied to the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, according to sources familiar with the effort.

In late fall of 2016, the Obama administration loosened prohibitions on doing business with companies tied to the IRGC—which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans—by publishing new language on what constituted IRGC “control” of these entities.

This back-door concession to Iran sparked outrage from lawmakers and pro-Israel groups and later fueled a Trump administration push to declare the IRGC a terror organization.

A new congressional bid will now seek to revise that standard for IRGC “control,” reversing a portion of Obama-era sanctions relief that has helped Iran fund its massive military intervention in Syria and other regional hotspots. The push is already said to be gaining support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the United States’s leading pro-Israel lobbying group, which will support the new effort during its annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., next month.

Tens of thousands of supporters who turn out for AIPAC’s conference will help lobby in favor of the legislation, as well as other related efforts to constrain Iran’s growing influence in the region. The group also will throw its support behind an effort to provide Israel with new munitions in light of its efforts to counter Iran.

One source with knowledge of the situation told the Washington Free Beacon that efforts to patch this Obama-era concession have been in the works for some time and are now becoming public.

“This has been a longtime coming. The Obama administration used every last trick to loosen sanctions on Iran, even hiding concessions in online FAQs and then claiming nothing had changed when they got caught, which is what happened in fall of 2016,” said the source, a veteran congressional adviser briefed on AIPAC’s push.

“AIPAC and Congress both called out the back-door sanctions relief at the time and said they’d pursue legislative fixes,” the source said. “A few months later the Trump transition team started taking over and pursuing fixes, and now it’s back over to Congress to put everything into law. AIPAC knows where the bodies on this one are buried, and will be providing invaluable policy and political advice.”

AIPAC did not confirm to the Free Beacon by press time that the push to revise standards for “control” by the IRGC will be on the agenda.

The administration and Congress are seeking to send a clear message to the world that Iran is not open for business, despite efforts by the Obama administration to promote renewed trade, one senior Trump administration familiar with new efforts to crackdown on Iran told the Free Beacon.

“What we saw in Iran in late December and early January was the extreme dissatisfaction of the Iranian people with an economy that’s being run to service the military, not to help the Iranian people,” the official said. “What tightening this will do is make it clear the U.S. stands with the people with Iran, not the IRGC.”

European allies should proceed with caution when entering the Iranian economy, the official said.

“Our friends and allies who are doing business with this regime should think about who they want to interact with: Do they want to interact with the IRGC—which is spreading violent mayhem throughout the Middle East—or do they want an Iran that’s postured to create economic growth, thriving business, and authentic, transparent partners we can work with?” the official asked.

Earlier this month, White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster delivered a speech in Munich warning companies that doing business with Iran would enrich the IRGC and risked running afoul of Washington. Top Iranian officials responded by accusing McMaster and the United States of violating the nuclear deal.

“Don’t do business with the IRGC; don’t enrich the IRGC; don’t enable their murderous campaign; don’t enable their threat to our friends in the region and to—especially Israel but also Saudi Arabia and others,” McMaster said. “It’s in everyone’s interest to really work hard on business intelligence to understand who are the beneficial owners of these companies who were, you know, opening up checkbooks and doing business with in Iran.”

CIA Director Mike Pompeo has made similar remarks in recent weeks, warning the international community that doing business with Iran could make it a party to the IRGC’s continued terror operations.

The Trump administration has been targeting the Obama-era concession to Iran since even before taking office.

Sources close to the transition told journalists at the time they would be revising the Treasury guidelines—specifically the standard for “control” that had been used to provide additional sanctions.

Published time: 26 Feb, 2018 00:25

https://www.rt.com/news/419803-erdogan-girl-military-martyr/

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan © Depo Photos / Global Look Press

Source: Russia sets stage for UN veto of Western bid to rebuke Iran – Israel Hayom

Source: Iran files UN grievance against Israel over PM’s ‘threats’ in Munich speech – Israel Hayom

Iran has filed a grievance against Israel with the U.N. Security Council over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the Munich Security Conference last week, saying it constitutes a direct threat to the Islamic republic.

In his speech to the prestigious symposium, Netanyahu criticized Iran for its interference in Middle East affairs.

The speech came on the heels of an Iranian drone incursion into Israeli airspace. Israeli fighter jets struck Iranian assets in Syria in retaliation, and an Israeli F-16 was downed by Syrian anti-aircraft fire. Although both sides refrained from any subsequent escalation, the incident remains the most serious confrontation to date between Israel and the Iranian-backed forces in Syria.

Holding up a fragment of a downed drone during his speech, Netanyahu warned that “Israel will not allow Iran’s regime to put a noose of terror around our neck. We will act if necessary, not just against Iran’s proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself.”

AP

In his letter to the 15-member council, Iranian Ambassador to the U.N. Gholamali Khoshroo wrote, “Netanyahu has threatened to attack Iran. We demand you confront Israel over the expansion and destruction activities of the Israeli regime.”

Israel had filed a complaint against Iran with the Security Council over the drone’s incursion.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon’s letter urged the council to censure Iran over its breach of Israeli airspace, saying the U.N. “must condemn this dangerous move and put an end to Iran’s provocations once and for all.”

Commenting on the Iranian grievance Sunday, Danon said, “The Iranian lies will not succeed in obscuring the clear facts: Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. The U.N. Security Council cannot stand idly by as Iran provokes a dangerous escalation and destabilizes the region.”

Source: IAF pilot error determined as cause of fighter jet crash – Israel News – Jerusalem Post

Israeli Air Force investigation reveals F-16 pilot and navigator failed to follow a precise action sequence due to stress.

Source: Iran talks 2.0: Trump battles Europe on the nuclear deal – Middle East – Jerusalem Post

Last month, Trump gave Paris, London and Berlin a mid-May deadline to come up with a new sanctions framework around the nuclear accord.

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 US President Donald Trump walks from the Diplomatic Reception Room after speaking about the Iran nuclear deal at the White House in Washington, US, October 13, 2017. . (photo credit: REUTERS)

NEGOTIATIONS THAT led to a landmark nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 were lavish and public affairs. Over a two-year period, diplomats from six world powers and Tehran camped out in Europe’s finest hotels, surrounded by legions of press from all across the world eager for details from behind gilded conference room doors.

The new Iran talks, on the other hand – quietly announced last month by US President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson – are shaping up to be quite different. These negotiations do not include the press. They do not include Iran. And they are up against a very short deadline of 120 days.

These talks, held directly between State Department officials and their counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, or the E3, are over whether it is possible to broker an addendum agreement to the 2015 nuclear accord that will keep Trump from killing it outright.

European governments know the stakes are high. But they don’t know the standard for success they are working toward, given the president’s imprecise threats, his political interest in scrubbing the deal and his seemingly vague understanding of the nonproliferation agreement in the first place.

Last month, Trump gave Paris, London and Berlin a mid-May deadline to come up with a new sanctions framework around the nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, agreeing “for the last time” to waive nuclear-related sanctions critical to US participation in the deal.

“My administration has engaged with key supplemental agreement that would impose new multilateral sanctions if Iran develops or tests long-range missiles, thwarts inspections, or makes progress toward a nuclear weapon – requirements that should have been in the nuclear deal in the first place,” Trump said.

“Today, I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies’ agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal,” he added. “This is a last chance. In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately.”

Trump’s deadline caught European leaders off guard. Does the president expect them to complete a new, supplemental agreement that “fixes” the agreement to his liking in four short months? Would a framework for negotiations suffice? Or is this simply Trump posturing, preparing the world for his inevitable withdrawal?

Europe’s diplomats are preparing for both. They are asking Tillerson’s team to explicitly outline what it will take to keep Trump within the deal for the time being. But they are also preparing a backup plan if he pulls out: the imposition of “blocking regulations,” a mechanism that would protect European businesses engaged in Iran from US secondary sanctions should they snap back into place.

It’s a controversial move that would spark heated internal debate within Europe – and one that, if executed, would set up a direct confrontation with Washington, and a potential trade war. Europeans are generally in agreement that US secondary sanctions, which they refer to as “extraterritorial,” violate international law and the spirit of their historic alliances with the US.

Europe has imposed blocking regulations to protect their businesses working in Cuba from US penalties. But the case of Iran is wholly different, involving a bigger market drawing larger companies exposed to greater risk – and a country the US deems a top national security threat.

Trump’s team is working directly with the E3 after giving up on the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Frederica Mogherini, whom they view as politically invested in the survival in JCPOA. The EU organized the original 2013-15 Iran talks, which included the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran.

Mogherini has warned that the EU will not take part in any supplemental deals that impose new terms onto the nuclear agreement. And she opposes new European action against Iran’s ballistic missile work – one of Trump’s baseline requirements for remaining within the JCPOA.

Trump has also asked European powers to address Iran’s regional behavior, noting that its aggressive tactics in the Middle East have been emboldened by the nuclear deal itself.

“I also call on all our allies to take stronger steps with us to confront Iran’s other malign activities. Among other actions, our allies should cut off funding to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, its militant proxies, and anyone else who contributes to Iran’s support for terrorism,” Trump said. “They should designate Hezbollah – in its entirety – as a terrorist organization. They should join us in constraining Iran’s missile development and stopping its proliferation of missiles, especially to Yemen. They should join us in countering Iran’s cyber threats. They should help us deter Iran’s aggression against international shipping. They should pressure the Iranian regime to stop violating its citizens’ rights. And they should not do business with groups that enrich Iran’s dictatorship or fund the Revolutionary Guard and its terrorist proxies.

“No one should doubt my word,” he continued. “I said I would not certify the nuclear deal – and I did not. I will also follow through on this pledge. I hereby call on key European countries to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people. If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran.”

SINCE THE president’s ultimatum, administration officials have offered mixed messages on what they will accept as adequate progress in talks with Europe to continue negotiations, justifying for Trump one more sanctions waiver. One official said he expects an agreement that “enshrines certain triggers that the Iranian regime cannot exceed related to ballistic missiles; related to a nuclear breakout period, to hold them to one year or less, and to inspection; and that would have no sunset clause.”

Their bullish rhetoric has born some fruit: France and Britain have already called for additional action against Iran’s “malign activities” regionwide, and warned that Tehran is in violation of existing international laws banning its ballistic missile work.

But they continue to insist on protecting the “fundamentals” of the nuclear deal itself, and on “compartmentalizing” talks such that the core of the JCPOA – its basic text – remains unaffected. And that position may prove irreconcilable with the Trump administration’s stance. It may be that no amount of time for negotiations would alter it.

Despite the president’s threats, Tillerson cautioned recently that Washington cannot force Europe to act one way or another, much less in a matter of weeks.

“The US is under a bit of a timetable to deliver on what the president is looking for, but we don’t – we can’t set timetables for others,” he told reporters on January 22, announcing his intent to “formalize” working groups on the matter.

Tillerson, who toured the Middle East this month, is leading an effort within the administration to keep Trump from tearing up the nuclear accord, hoping instead that he will leverage his threats to bring Europe to a meaningful compromise.

“It’s always darkest before the dawn,” Tillerson said.

Source: Russia to Israel: We will defend you if Iran attacks, but also defend Iran’s presence in Syria – DEBKAfile

( We will defend ourselves BY ourselves, thank you.  That includes in Syria,,, – JW )