Iran's Clenched fist aimed at Great Satan US loosens

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
Clenched fist aimed at Great Satan loosens

- Obama's chance to live up to early Nobel



A girl holds an Iranian flag during celebrations in Tehran.

On the day he took office, President Barack Obama reached out to America's enemies, offering in his first inaugural address to "extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist".

More than six years later, he has arrived at a moment of truth in testing that proposition with one of America's most intransigent adversaries.

The framework nuclear agreement he reached with Iran yesterday did not provide the definitive answer to whether Obama's audacious gamble will pay off. The fist Iran has shaken at the so-called Great Satan since 1979 has not completely relaxed.


But the fingers are loosening, and the agreement, while still incomplete, held out the prospect that it might yet become a handshake.

For a President whose ambitions to remake the world have been repeatedly frustrated, the possibility of a reconciliation after 36 years of hostility between Washington and Tehran now seems tantalisingly within reach, a way to be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize that even he believed was awarded prematurely.

Yet the deal remains unfinished and unsigned, and critics worry that he is giving up too much while grasping for the illusion of peace.

"Right now, he has no foreign policy legacy," said Cliff Kupchan, an Iran specialist who has been tracking the talks as chairman of the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm. "He's got a list of foreign policy failures. A deal with Iran and the ensuing transformation of politics in West Asia would provide one of the more robust foreign policy legacies of any recent presidencies. It's kind of all in for Obama. He has nothing else. So for him, it's all or nothing."

As Obama stepped into the Rose Garden to announce what he called a historic understanding, he seemed both relieved that it had come together and combative with those in Congress who would tear it apart.

While its provisions must be translated into writing by June 30, he presented it as a breakthrough that would, if made final, make the world a safer place, the kind of legacy any President would like to leave. "This has been a long time coming," he said.

Obama cited the same John F. Kennedy quote he referenced earlier in the week when visiting a new institute dedicated to the former President's brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy: "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."

The sense of celebration was captured by aides standing nearby in the Colonnade who exchanged fist bumps at the end of the President's remarks.

But Obama will have a hard time convincing a sceptical Congress, where Republicans and many Democrats are deeply concerned that he has grown so desperate to reach a deal that he is trading away American and Israeli security.

If Congress kills the deal, Obama said, "then it's the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy".

An agreement with Iran remains the most promising goal left in a foreign policy agenda that has unravelled since Obama took office. Rather than building a new partnership with Russia, he faces a new cold war.

Rather than ending the war in Iraq, he has sent American forces back to fight the Islamic State, though primarily from the air. Rather than defeating al Qaida, he finds himself chasing its offshoots. Rather than forging peace in West Asia, he said recently that is beyond his reach.

Obama still aspires to reorient American foreign policy more towards Asia, and a pending Pacific trade pact could have a lasting impact if he can seal the deal and push it through Congress. He has nudged the world, particularly China, towards more action on climate change. He will count the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba after a half-century of estrangement as a major achievement.

But with so many disappointments, Iran has become something of a holy grail of foreign policy to Obama, one that could hold the key to a broader reordering of a region that has bedevilled American presidents for generations. Aides say he has spent more time on Iran than any other foreign policy issue except Afghanistan and terrorism.
Clenched fist aimed at Great Satan loosens
It is a great victory for Obama in his fading days, but the Republicans, Israel, Russia and Saudi Arabia will be sorely disappointed.

This will surely bring the heat down in international tensions. but could it lead to more given that the Republicans, Israel, Russians and Saudi Arabia will find fresh reasons to ratchet up their own strategic interests to suit their own political goals?
 

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
Bringing Iran in from cold


Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

President Hassan Rouhani has emerged triumphant both at home and abroad, bringing Iran in from the cold by using his pragmatism to try and end crippling sanctions and decades of hostility with the West through detente and diplomacy.

Iran and world powers reached a framework agreement yesterday on curbing Iran's nuclear programme for at least a decade, a step towards a final pact that could end 12 years of brinkmanship, threats and confrontation.

If the deal results in a comprehensive agreement in June, Rouhani's popularity would grow even further, giving him the political capital to take on hardliners blocking his promises of political and social reforms in the Islamic Republic.


A 66-year-old mid-ranking cleric who formerly served as Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Rouhani dismisses any suggestion that his pragmatism represents a betrayal of the Islamic Republic's founding precepts.

"Moderation does not mean deviating from principles and it is not conservatism in the face of change and development," he said shortly after the surprise election defeat of his conservative rivals by a landslide in 2013.

Rouhani also appeared to acknowledge that it would take time to fulfil his campaign promises. "Moderation ... is an active and patient approach in society in order to be distant from the abyss of extremism," he said.

At home, the mild-mannered insider has as yet little to show for his pledge of a more transparent and tolerant administration; the political and civic restrictions that irk many Iranians remain stringent.

The US noted in March 2015 that large numbers of prisoners are executed, including political activists and juveniles. Journalists are routinely imprisoned, and women and minorities face rights violations, the UN added. .

Notably, two leading reformist politicians who contested the previous presidential elections in 2009 remain under house arrest. Their supporters turned out in force to elect Rouhani four years later, after he made an implicit pledge to free them and other political prisoners.

A comprehensive deal in June could see the West lift the trade and financial sanctions that are strangling the economy in return for limits on its atomic work, which the West says may be aimed at building weapons but that Tehran says is for peaceful purposes.

Progress has been possible in part because Rouhani has kept the confidence of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the so-called guardian of Iran's Islamic Revolution who has the final say on all matters of state, including foreign policy.
Bringing Iran in from cold
 

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
Celebration mixes with caution

Iran's President said today that a framework for a nuclear deal was just the first step towards building a new relationship with the world, after his countrymen greeted the announcement of the accord with celebrations in the streets.

President Barack Obama also hailed an "historic understanding", although diplomats cautioned that hard work lies ahead to strike a final deal.

The tentative agreement, struck yesterday after eight days of talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, clears the way for a settlement to allay western fears that Iran could build an atomic bomb, with economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted in return.


It marks the most significant step towards rapprochement between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Iranian revolution, and could potentially end decades of international isolation, with far reaching political consequences in West Asia.

It also left Washington's closest regional ally Israel fuming, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring it could lead to nuclear proliferation, war and even his country's destruction.

In a televised speech today, President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate elected in a landslide two years ago on a promise to reduce Iran's isolation, said the nuclear talks were just the start of a broader policy of opening up.

"This is a first step towards productive interactions with the world," he said.

"Today is a day that will remain in the historic memory of the Iranian nation," he added. "Some think that we must either fight the world or surrender to world powers. We say it is neither of those, there is a third way. We can have cooperation with the world."

The deal still requires experts to work out difficult details before a June 30 deadline and diplomats noted that it could still collapse at any time before then.

"We are not completely at the end of the road and the end of the road should be in June," said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius. "Nothing is signed until everything is signed, but things are going in the right direction."

Netanyahu, who has the ear of Republicans who control both houses of the US Congress, said the powers negotiating with Iran must add a new demand that Tehran recognise Israel's right to exist. Israel believes Iran's goal is to destroy it.

Under yesterday's terms, Iran would cut back its stockpiles of enriched uranium that could be used to make a nuclear bomb and dismantle most of the centrifuges it could use to make more. Intensive international inspections would prevent it from violating the terms in secret. Washington said the settlement would extend the "breakout time" needed for Iran to make a bomb to a full year, from 2-3 months now.

For Iran, it would eventually lead to the end of sanctions that have cut the oil exports that underpin its economy by more than half over the past three years.

Still, decades of hostility remain between countries that have referred to each other as "the Great Satan" and part of the "axis of evil". Obama and Rouhani, who both took risks to open the dialogue with secret talks two years ago, will each have to sell the deal to sceptical conservatives at home.

Celebration mixes with caution
 

sesha_maruthi27

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2010
Messages
3,963
Likes
1,803
Country flag
I want to see what Israel does in the near future. Russia will be happy for time being....
 

Latest Replies

Global Defence

New threads

Articles

Top