Really moderate, or just for show? Iranian President Rouhani. Illustrative. FEMA/Marty Bahamonde.
New Iranian President Hassan Rohani has been talking nice lately, but he couldn’t keep himself from taking a jab at the US Congress on Wednesday. He doesn’t like Congress because they have enacted multiple sanctions on Iran over their illegal nuclear program.
Commenting on the upcoming nuclear negotiations with major world powers in Geneva, Switzerland, Rohani was quoted by the Fars News Agency as saying, “I hope that the next Geneva meeting will succeed and the (US) Senate and Congress don’t repeat their previous mistakes.”
You should hope they don’t make new ones.
Iran has been putting on a happy face for the world lately, even talking directly with the US. The goal, of course, is to end the sanctions that were put in place to push Iran to give up their pursuit of nuclear weapons. The key is whether or not the world decides to lessen the sanctions before Iran gives up their nuclear ambitions.
Iran is clearly focused on the sanctions. Fars quoted Rohani as saying, “When the sanctions are removed, both sides will win. When mutual confidence is built, the two sides will win.” That hints he’s hoping sanctions will be removed as confidence-building steps, prior to major concessions by Iran. That would be bad for you.
Under such obvious pressure, now is the perfect time to force Iran to halt all of its programs that lead to nuclear weapons and make them adhere to international demands. That’s what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday at the United Nations.
“The international community has Iran on the ropes. If you want to knockout Iran’s nuclear weapons program peacefully, don’t let up the pressure. Keep it up,” Netanyahu was quoted by his office as saying. “We all want to give diplomacy with Iran a chance to succeed. But when it comes to Iran, the greater the pressure, the greater the chance.”
So encourage your Congressional representative and Senators to keep the pressure on Iran. Don’t let Iran escape pressure before it dismantles its nuclear program. A partial deal, Netanyahu warned, won’t do it.
It’s all or nothing. And the saga resumes live and in person in the Geneva nuclear talks later this month.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, October 2, 2013)