Obama Will Reward Iran With Sanctions Lifting. He Is A Dictator At Home But A Marshmallow Internationally!

Obama Says US Will Consider Immediate Lifting of Iran Sanctions

Obama is willing to explore the immediate lifting of sanctions on Iran, in contrast to what 
was agreed upon in the talks.  

Iran’s Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Khamenei.
(mypetjawa.mu.nu)

In what appears to be another concession by US President Barack Obama to Iranian demands, the American leader said he would be willing to discuss the immediate lifting of sanctions on Iran after signing a final deal regarding its nuclear program.

Speaking Friday at a White House joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Obama said he has left open the door to “creative negotiations” in response to Iran’s demand that sanctions be immediately lifted as part of a nuclear deal. The initial agreement calls for the penalties to be removed in phases, in tandem with Iran’s compliance with the deal.

Asked at the press conference whether he will definitively rule out the lifting of sanctions at
once as part of a final deal, Obama said he didn’t want to get ahead of negotiators in
working through the potential sticking point. His main concern, he explained, was
making sure that if Iran violates an agreement, sanctions can quickly be reinstated —
 the so-called “snap back” provision.

“How sanctions are lessened, how we snap back sanctions if there’s a violation, there
are a lot of different mechanisms and ways to do that,” Obama said, adding that part
of the job for Secretary of State John Kerry and the representatives of the other
P5+1 nations working to reach a final deal with Iran by June 30 “is to sometimes
ind formulas that get to our main concerns while allowing the other side to make
 a presentation to their body politic that is more acceptable.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani
insisted last week that they would not sign a deal unless it includes the lifting of 
all sanctions on Iran on its first day of implementation.

Obama initially portrayed the Iranian leaders’ comments as a reflection of internal
political pressure, while pointing out that the initial framework agreement reached
earlier this month allows for sanctions to be phased out once international monitors
verify that Tehran is abiding by the limitations. The sanctions issue “will require
some creative negotiations by John Kerry and others,” he said.

The lifting of the sanctions is potentially dangerous for the Middle East as
it would fill Iran’s treasury with funds it could use to fund its terror network
 and destabilization of the region.

Obama Tough at Home, Soft Internationally

Obama said he will sign legislation expected to pass the Senate and House
giving Congress a say on a final deal, calling it a “reasonable compromise”
that addresses his previous objections to Congress oversight.

The legislation would block Obama from waiving congressional sanctions
against Iran for at least 30 days after any final agreement, which would give
lawmakers time to weigh in and review the agreement.

An S-300 battery on parade in Moscow. (Vovan/wikicommons)

He said he takes lawmakers
 who have drafted the
 legislation at their word that
they will not try to derail
negotiations.

Obama also weighed in on
Russia’s announcement earlier
this week that it would lift a
 five-year ban on delivery of
 anti-aircraft missiles, giving the Islamic Republic’s military a strong deterrent against
 any air attack. The White House initially objected, but Obama said, “I’m frankly
surprised that it held this long.”

Russia signed the $800-million contract to sell Iran the S-300 missile system in
2007, but suspended their delivery three years later because of strong objections
 from the United States and Israel. “Their economy is under strain and this was
 a substantial sale,” Obama said.

Russia, which also is party to the talks along with China, France, Britain and
Germany, said the preliminary nuclear agreement made its 2010 ban on
sending missiles to Iran no longer necessary.

By: AP and United with Israel Staf
f

The Time Has Come When Israel Is Blamed For The Failure Of Peace Talks. We Expect Obama/Kerry To Now Play Their "Demands" Cards To Force Israel To Accept The Obama Plan For The Middle East. It WILL Happen Soon!

Bob Dreyfuss

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Will Obama and Kerry Play Their High Cards Against Israeli Hardliners?

Bob Dreyfuss on April 14, 2014 - 12:09 PM ET

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President Obama with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (Reuters/Jason Reed)

The deadline, supposedly April 29, for a deal of some kind between Israel and the Palestinians—what Secretary of State John Kerry calls a “framework agreement”—is close, and although the talks appeared to have fallen apart earlier this month, the two sides held what The Wall Street Journal calls “a rare meeting without U.S. mediator Martin Indyk present” on Sunday. It isn’t clear what the meeting means, and it may be too late for any deal to be reached by the end of April, but at least Kerry is putting the blame for the roadblocks where it belongs: on Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

To recap: last week, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he used to chair, to howls of outrage from Israel and from its American partisans, Kerry directly blamed Israel for sabotaging the talks, by announcing the construction of 700 settlements in occupied territory outside Jerusalem. “Poof!” said Kerry, describing how the talks came to a sudden halt. “That was sort of the moment.” Israel also threw a tool-box full of monkey wrenches into the talks by refusing to release a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners, though they had pledged to do so as part of the Kerry-led talks. Following those actions by Israel, the Palestinians announced their intention to apply for membership, as a state, in more than a dozen United Nations organizations, and then Netanyahu escalated by declaring his intent to take more “unilateral” actions that would further throw the talks into the deep freeze. But it was clearly Israel, and its intransigent prime minister, who was chiefly to blame for wrecking the talks.

It wasn’t only Kerry who put the blame on Israel. As The New York Times reported last week:

Tzipi Livni, the justice minister and the government’s chief negotiator with the Palestinians, said she believed that Uri Ariel, the housing minister, had acted deliberately to sabotage the peace effort.

Hardly a liberal peacenik, Livni is a former member of the ultraright Likud coalition. But more recently, she’s emerged as a strong advocate for a two-state solution, and the fact that she was named as Israel’s chief negotiator was thought to be a good sign, at the start of the talks in 2013. Now, Livni is engaged in political warfare with the far-right components of the ruling coalition—not only Housing Minister Ariel but Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, too, who Livni says is the representative of Israel’s fanatical settler movement, including the settlement of Yitzhar, wheresettlers attacked security police recently, and not of Israel itself. According to Haaretz, the Israeli daily, Livni added:

And so everything is connected. This man and his party are damaging Israel’s security. They’re the ones trying to make sure that there’s no peace agreement—that the young men of Yitzhar become official Israel. I won’t let this happen.

Bennett, the leader of the hardline Jewish Home party, closely affiliated with the settler movement, and other extremists inside Netanyahu’s coalition, are the ones sabotaging the talks, says Livni. Reports The Times of Israel:

She also accused the hard-line “Jewish Home,” a pro-settler party, of trying to thwart her efforts. She took special aim at the party’s leader, Naftali Bennett, and Housing Minister Uri Ariel, a strong supporter of Jewish settlements.

“There are people in the government who don’t want peace,” Livni said. “Bennett and Uri Ariel represent those who want to prevent a peace process.”

So far, it seems that Netanyahu is leaning toward the hardliners. But Livni’s courageous stand provides crucial cover for Kerry’s decision to blame Israel for the breakdown. And that’s important, because even a slight move by Kerry to take the Palestinian side in the talks will terrify Israeli politicians and political powers. Although it often seems as if Israel is immune to American pressure, in fact that pressure is rarely applied, and Israel is so dependent on the United States for political support—in the UN, say—and for American economic and military support that even a slight indication that the United States is reviewing its Israel policy will send chills down Israeli spines. The problem, historically, is that the United States has rarely been willing to use that influence.

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Kerry, naturally, is under fire from the Israel lobby’s partisans on Capitol Hill. But they’re greatly weakened, because of their opposition to the ongoing US-Iran talks, which appear to be progressing successfully. When the Israel lobby on the Hill and its organizer, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, tried to sabotage the Iran talks by legislating yet another round of anti-Iran sanctions, President Obama’s White House in January suggested that backers of those sanctions want war with Iran, and called their bluff. As I reported back in January, a White House statement said:

If certain members of Congress want the United States to take military action, they should be up front with the American public and say so. Otherwise, it’s not clear why any member of Congress would support a bill that possibly closes the door on diplomacy and makes it more likely that the United States will have to choose between military options or allowing Iran’s nuclear program to proceed.

That statement shocked AIPAC and its allies to the core. Right now, despite Israel’s intransigence, Obama and Kerry hold all the high cards. Let’s see if they lay them down.