U.S. Continues to Demand Iran Surrender in Nuclear Talks

The U.S., apparently backed by the other “major world powers” on its side of the negotiating table against Iran, is insisting that Iran mostly dismantle its nuclear programs AND remove its enriched uranium from its territory. In return, sanctions will NOT be lifted. Rather, they'll be “eased.” [1]

U.S. and other Western media keeps falsely using the word “lifted.” This is misleading in the extreme. There is NO lifting on offer. U.S. sanctions can only be LIFTED by a vote of Congress. Obama can “suspend” them, which means a Sword of Damocles will still be hanging over Iran's head.

Also it is being reported that the UN sanctions will be “even harder” to lift. (NPR, the U.S. government domestic radio propaganda network.)

The phrase being reiterated by U.S. “diplomats” is that Iran “has to make the hard decisions.” i.e. the decisions to virtually surrender in return for a gradual easing of some sanctions. That is how it is described if you read far enough into various articles on the subject.

I was just reading an article about the (U.S.-created) Ukraine “crisis” by a Harvard professor, and was struck by this paragraph, which is equally applicable in the Iran negotiations:

“Efforts to resolve this crisis are also handicapped by the U.S. tendency to indulge in 'take-it-or-leave it' diplomacy. Instead of engaging in genuine bargaining, American officials tend to tell others what to do and then ramp up the pressure if they do not comply. Today, those who want to arm Ukraine are demanding that Russia cease all of its activities in Ukraine, withdraw from Crimea, and let Ukraine join the EU and/or NATO if it wants and if it meets the membership requirements. In other words, they expect Moscow to abandon its own interests in Ukraine, full stop.”-

“Why Arming Kiev Is A Really, Really Bad Idea,” Foreign Policy, February 9, 2015, by Stephen M. Walt. He's a professor of what's called “international relations” at Harvard. That is a euphemism for international power politics. The aim is to train people to be apparatchiks in the U.S. imperialist structure.

The establishment medias in the U.S. and Europe are hiding the fact that it is the unreasonably harsh demands of the U.S. side that is the problem. For example,here's the obfuscatory, evasive, and downright dishonest BBC version of the negotiations:

“They're still struggling to overcome differences on the pace and timing of lifting sanctions.” (BBC World Service, April 1, early morning.)

Actually LIFTING sanctions isn't even being OFFERED by the U.S. TEMPORARY SUSPENSION of SOME sanctions is. And the “struggle” isn't some cooperative thing they're doing together. The U.S. and the other five nations ganging up on Iran are squeezing the Iranians as hard as they can to force them to knuckle under. It's an adversarial struggle, like wrestlers (in this case, six wrestlers piling on one).

The establishment propagandists won't stop lying about the talks. Here's a propaganda readeron on a New York City radio station that is the main NPR affiliate there:

“talks are continuing” for Iran to surrender “in exchange for the lifting of crippllng sanctions.” There's the lie again. NOT lifting! It's only a temporary suspension of U.S. ones if Iran knuckles under. (WNYC, Rich Haik, April 1, 2015, 9:30 am.)

Keep in mind that Iran is fully within its rights to enrich uranium to 20% under the Non-Proliferation Treaty it is a signatory to (which Israel has never signed), which is the limit it has enriched to, and it is obligated to notify the UN body charged with enforcement when a new facility is opened, which it has also done. We are constantly told about “suspicious” Iranian behavior and “unanswered questions,” but details are not provided.

Of course the issue is that the nations squeezing Iran (and Israel and Saudi Arabia) don't want Iran to have the capability of building nuclear weapons. It isn't about weapons, per se. It's about capability.

Basically the goal is to make it impossible for Iran to build nuclear weapons even if it wanted to.

Okay, fine, but you won't even release your economic stranglehold if they agree! Oh, they “need to make the hard decision” to agree to this.

Absurd.

1] Arrayed against Iran are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (U.S., UK, France, Russia, China) and Germany.