John Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif in Lausanne. Kerry has urged Iran to make concessions that would lift sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear programme. Photograph: Reuters
New York Times: In Nuclear Talks, Iran Seeks to Avoid Specifics
PARIS — If an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear capability is reached by deadline in the next seven days, one thing may be missing: an actual written accord, signed by the Iranians.
Over the past few weeks, Iran has increasingly resisted any kind of formal “framework” agreement at this stage in the negotiations, preferring a more general statement of “understanding” followed by a final accord in June, according to Western diplomats involved in the talks.
Should that position hold — one of the many unknowns of the coming days — the United States and its five negotiating partners may find themselves in the uncomfortable position of describing the accord as they understand it while the Iranians go home to offer their own version.
WNU Editor: This apparently is where we are right now on an Iranian nuclear deal ....
.... If an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear capability is reached by deadline in the next seven days, one thing may be missing: an actual written accord, signed by the Iranians.
If this New York Times article is accurate .... it appears that the U.S. and Iran are going to have a "gentleman's agreement" rather than a written agreement .... and as to specifics .... it will even be more murky.
And President Obama's allies are wondering why he has few allies on this issue ?!?!?!.... Obama has few allies on Iran (The Hill).
Update: It looks like an Iranian accord is about to be reached .... Kerry flies to Switzerland for make-or-break Iran nuke talks (AP).
3 comments:
Between this and the Bergdahl trial, the president is looking like a real schmuck.
WNU,
At this point I don't think how bad or good the deal is matters. I think events have moved past any so called agreement, to most everyone involved it is just theatre. With events in Yemen, I think the Saudis realize the oil price gambit has failed or isn't working quick enough and they are going to have to fight conventionally and right outside the back door.
Even businessmen who essentially want the same things as each other when entering into any kind of agreement do not do "gentlemen's agreements." They understand that without explicit written agreements about what each side is going to do and not do there is simply to much potential for misunderstanding.
James,
I think the main idea behind the "oil gambit" was to drive American frackers out of business and hopefully destroy the US domestic oil industry. They may have done this in conjunction with certain US lawmakers and US government officials. Destroying the US oil industry has literally been a "pipe dream" for many of these US officials. If you will remember, 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 911 attacks were Saudis. Whether rightly or wrongly Saudi Arabia views America as its primary enemy. Iran and perhaps Russia or secondary.
There is another possibility. As the Saudis have always viewed America as enemy # 1, they've conducted much study in how to bring America down. When "democracies" like America or the nations of Western Europe fall on hard times, the first things to suffer cuts in funding and support is the military, as the people want social services from their elected officials and the military gets neglected. In non or rigged democracies such as Iran, Russia, and other such countries, the military suffers last. As such, even if the economies of countries such as Iran and Russia may be struggling right now, their military might is unaffected and perhaps even strengthened as the resolve of the leadership and the people has only been steeled.
Perhaps the Saudis put in place their "playbook" to defeat America the nation they've always viewed as enemy #1 to try and defeat Iran and perhaps Russia not realizing this "playbook" would not work against them and would only make things worse!!
Perhaps they could have taken lessons from Sun Tzu. 1.) "Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always prevail." 2.)"Know yourself but not the enemy and for every battle you win you will lose a battle." 3.)"Know neither your enemy nor yourself and you will succumb in every battle." These are paraphrases of the great general.
The Saudis it might seem fall into the second category. They have a good idea of who they are but failed to understand the enemy. They implemented a strategy that could effectively defeat America. Make the voting public suffer economically!! This strategy would not be effective against enemies like Iran or Russia.
In contrast, the Russians and the Iranians fully understand America and their other enemies. A prediction: the Saudi government will not survive the year. If wrong, I will come here and admit a year from now.
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