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Selasa, 25 Juni 2019

Iran calls new U.S. sanctions ‘outrageous and idiotic,’ warns that path to diplomacy is permanently closed - The Washington Post

President Trump imposed additional economic sanction on Iran on June 24, a few days after Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone near the Strait of Hormuz.

DUBAI — Iranian officials slammed the Trump administration Tuesday for new sanctions targeting the country’s leadership, saying the measures permanently closed the path to diplomacy and that the White House had “become mentally crippled” under the current president.

In a searing televised address, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called restrictions against Iran’s supreme leader “outrageous and idiotic” and said they showed “certain failure” on the part of the Trump administration to isolate Iran.

“You call for negotiations. If you are telling the truth, why are you simultaneously seeking to sanction our foreign minister?” Rouhani said Tuesday, referring to remarks by U.S. officials suggesting plans to sanction Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later this month.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Twitter that the “useless sanctioning” of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Zarif, who led Iran’s nuclear negotiations with world powers, “means the permanent closure of the doors of diplomacy.”

“Trump’s government is annihilating all of the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security,” said the spokesman, Abbas Mousavi.

President Trump announced the measures Monday, which U.S. officials said came in response to the downing of a U.S. Navy surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz last week. The sanctions also targeted senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and mean that foreign financial institutions providing significant “financial services” to any of the Iranian officials would be subject to U.S. penalties.

Rouhani said Tuesday that the sanctions against Khamenei — whom Trump described as “the one who is ultimately responsible for the hostile conduct of the regime” — were futile because the 80-year-old leader does not maintain any financial assets abroad.

He said: “Tehran’s strategic patience does not mean we have fear.”

National security adviser John Bolton described the new economic penalties Tuesday as “significant” but said that Trump has also “held the door open to real negotiations” with Iran.

He spoke at a trilateral summit of U.S., Israeli and Russian national security advisers in Jerusalem — the first of its kind.

Tsafrir Abayov

National security adviser John Bolton says President Trump “has held the door open to real negotiations” with Iran.

“All that Iran needs to do is walk through that door,” Bolton said, adding that any deal would need to “eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons program, its pursuit of ballistic missile delivery systems, its support for international terrorism and other malign behavior worldwide.”

Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and has complied with restrictions to its atomic energy activities set out under the 2015 deal it negotiated with world powers, including the United States.

The Trump administration abandoned that pact and reimposed a near-total embargo on Iran’s economy, including its oil, shipping, manufacturing and banking industries.

Iran said last week that it was on course to boost its stockpile of low-enriched uranium beyond the limits prescribed by the deal, a move that arms control experts said does not pose a near-term proliferation risk.

The agreement curbed Iran’s nuclear energy program in exchange for widespread sanctions relief. But the deal’s other signatories, including the European Union, have struggled to maintain the economic benefits promised to Iran under the pact.

Trump has said that he is willing to speak to Iran with no preconditions, but U.S. officials said this week that there is currently no back channel between the U.S. and Iranian governments. And planned sanctions against Iran’s chief diplomat undermined the administration’s message that it seeks unconditional talks with Iranian officials.

“If Zarif is sanctioned, it won’t be to punish him because of his service to the Islamic Republic,” said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder of the Europe-Iran forum that promotes business ties between Iran and European nations.

“It will be because of his own dogged commitment — to diplomacy — and of his proven ability to keep the door open for negotiations despite the sabotaging by rivals in both Tehran and Washington,” he said.

The sanctions were announced as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began recruiting allies, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to help monitor what they said were threats from Iran in the Persian Gulf. The United States has blamed Iran for a recent string of attacks on commercial tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil shipments.

Iran has denied involvement in the attacks.

On the morning of June 20, Iran shot down a U.S. drone near the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions. Each country has given different accounts about the location of the incident.

Military officials have said a new program for international cooperation on maritime security in the Persian Gulf is still in the early stages. It will require foreign nations from Asia and the gulf region to provide payment or naval assets to help monitor and protect maritime commerce in the Middle East, said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a program that has not been finalized.

Countries that buy and sell oil in the region would be asked in certain cases to escort ships, place vessels at fixed positions in the region or provide maritime patrol aircraft.

Pompeo also met with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on Monday in Saudi Arabia, which has signed on to the plan.

Trump complained on Twitter that the United States is “protecting the shipping lanes for other countries” and suggested he could stop U.S. naval patrols at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, one of the world’s most volatile flash points.

“All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been a dangerous journey,” Trump wrote.

Pompeo reiterated that message Monday during his meeting with Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Asking for military help with maritime security, Pompeo said, “We’ll need you all to participate, your military folks.”

“The president is keen on sharing that the United States doesn’t bear the cost of this,” he added.

Eglash reported from Jerusalem. Carol Morello in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-says-path-to-diplomacypermanently-closed-following-us-sanctions/2019/06/25/636b48e6-96b7-11e9-9a16-dc551ea5a43b_story.html

2019-06-25 09:50:22Z
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Iran calls new U.S. sanctions ‘outrageous and idiotic,’ warns that path to diplomacy is permanently closed - The Washington Post

President Trump imposed additional economic sanction on Iran on June 24, a few days after Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone near the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking in a televised address, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the restrictions targeting the supreme leader “outrageous and idiotic” and said they showed “certain failure” on the part of the Trump administration to isolate Iran.

“You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks?” Rouhani said on state television, referring to remarks by U.S. officials suggesting plans to sanction Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later this month.

The “useless sanctioning” of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Zarif — who led Iran’s nuclear negotiations with world powers — “means the permanent closure of the doors of diplomacy,” the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Abbas Mousavi, said on Twitter Tuesday. “Trump’s government is annihilating all of the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security.”

The measures, which sanction Khamenei and senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were taken in response to the downing of a U.S. drone by Iranian forces last week, U.S. officials said. As a result, any foreign financial institutions that provide significant “financial services” to any of the Iranian officials would be subject to U.S. penalties.

In Jerusalem on Tuesday, national security adviser John Bolton said the new sanctions were “significant” but that President Trump “has held the door open to real negotiations.”

He spoke at a trilateral summit of U.S., Israeli and Russian national security advisers — the first of its kind.

“All that Iran needs to do is walk through that door,” Bolton said.

The Trump administration says that it aims to drive a weakened Iran to the bargaining table for new talks over its nuclear energy program. The sanctions were announced as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began recruiting allies, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to help monitor threats from Iran in the Persian Gulf.

U.S. officials said there is currently no backchannel between the U.S. and Iranian governments.

Tsafrir Abayov

National security adviser John Bolton says President Trump “has held the door open to real negotiations” with Iran.

Bolton said U.S. diplomats are now “surging across the Middle East seeking a path to peace.”

“Iran’s silence has been deafening,” he said.

It is far from clear that Iran will buckle. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said Monday that any thought of negotiation is “not ready yet.” He also disputed claims that Iran was behind a recent string of attacks on oil tankers and other provocations against nations operating in the region, including the United States.

“The assets of Ayatollah Khamenei and his office will not be spared from the sanctions,” Trump said. The president mispronounced the Iranian clerical leader’s name as “Khomeini,” which was the name of the former leader who died in 1989.

The decision to target Khamenei directly suggests that Trump is attempting to turn up pressure on the leader who would decide whether to accept an invitation to new negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Trump’s titular counterpart is President Hassan Rouhani, who presided over the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump rejects as flawed and weak.

Trump withdrew the United States from the pact last year and began increasing sanctions in a campaign his critics say is aimed at further undermining the nuclear deal and forcing the regime’s collapse.

“The supreme leader of Iran is the one who ultimately is responsible for the hostile conduct of the regime,” Trump said as he signed an order imposing the sanctions, which come atop dozens of previous economic penalties applied over Iran’s alleged support for terrorism and other actions.

“He’s respected within his country. His office oversees the regime’s most brutal instruments, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the president said, which the United States blames for an attack on two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on June 13.

On the morning of June 20, Iran shot down a U.S. drone near the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions. Each country has given different accounts about the location of the incident.

Trump appears to be gambling that the pressure campaign will compel Iran’s leadership to agree to a new nuclear agreement and not prompt it to lash out militarily for what it views as an illegal effort to strangle Iran’s economy.

But analysts said the United States is reaching a point of diminishing returns when it comes to sanctions pressure.

“The entities that Khamenei’s office controls have already been subject to U.S. sanctions,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran scholar at the Brookings Institution. “Any new measures are only incremental and possibly redundant. The Iranian economy has already been forced to become more insular and less interconnected — which leaves the residual economic activity paradoxically more resilient to U.S. restrictions.”

Beginning last year, when Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, his administration has effectively banned Iranian oil exports, the country’s main revenue source, and moved on to smaller targets such as the iron, steel, aluminum and copper industries.

“Further economic sanctions are almost entirely symbolic, rather than being economically significant,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a sanctions expert at the Center for a New American Security. “Sanctions at this point are a sideshow to the real threat of military escalation and all-out war.”

Despite his aversion to a military strike, Trump said he has legal authority to order such an action without congressional approval, something some lawmakers have insisted he obtain. “I do like keeping them abreast, but I don’t have to do it legally,” he said Monday in an interview with the Hill.

On Monday, the Trump administration presented a case against Iran at the U.N. Security Council, arguing that Iran or its proxies were behind numerous assaults in the Middle East. The United States was not directly targeted in those actions, until the drone attack.

Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi told reporters at the United Nations that the unmanned “spy” plane violated Iranian airspace and ignored repeated radio warnings before it was shot down. The United States maintains that the aircraft was flying over international waters.

“We cannot accept any intimidation or any threat from anybody,” said Ravanchi, who helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal. He called for a regional dialogue under U.N. auspices and appeared to dismiss direct negotiations with Washington.

“How can we start a dialogue with somebody whose primary preoccupation is to put more sanctions on Iran?” he said. “So the atmosphere for such a dialogue is not ready yet.”

Trump continued to sound optimistic about the prospects for a new deal that he says would do more to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb than the existing agreement.

“We would love to be able to negotiate a deal if they want to. If they don’t want to, that’s fine, too. But we would love to be able to,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “And, frankly, they might as well do it soon.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions against senior military commanders “will lock up literally billions of dollars more of assets.”

These sanctions block access to the United States financial system and any assets the officials might hold in the United States. The order Trump signed gives Mnuchin authority to target other officials appointed by Khamenei.

Mnuchin stressed that the sanctions were not intended to hurt the people of Iran but were aimed at the country’s leaders. “I want to be very clear. We are not looking at creating issues for the people of Iran,” he said.

However, U.S. sanctions have devastated Iran’s currency, making everyday goods such as fruits, vegetables, car parts and mobile phones exceedingly expensive for average Iranians.

The sanctions, which have strained U.S. relations with Europe, have elated Washington’s allies in Israel and Arab Gulf states. But the president has shown frustration in doing most of the heavy lifting.

“All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been a dangerous journey,” Trump wrote.

Pompeo reiterated that message Monday during his meeting with Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Asking for military help with maritime security, Pompeo said “we’ll need you all to participate, your military folks.”

“The president is keen on sharing that the United States doesn’t bear the cost of this,” he added.

Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, retorted in a tweet that Trump “is 100% right that the US military has no business in the Persian Gulf. Removal of its forces is fully in line with interests of US and the world. But it’s now clear that the #B_Team is not concerned with US interests — they despise diplomacy, and thirst for war.”

Military officials have said a new program for international cooperation on maritime security in the Persian Gulf is still in the early stages. It will require foreign nations from Asia and the Gulf region to provide payment or naval assets to help monitor and protect maritime commerce in the Middle East, said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a program that as not been finalized.

Countries that buy and sell oil in the region would be asked in certain cases to escort ships, place vessels at fixed positions in the region or provide maritime patrol aircraft.

Pompeo also met with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on Monday in Saudi Arabia, which has signed on to the plan.

Eglash reported from Jerusalem. John Hudson and Anne Gearan reported from Washington. Carol Morello, Karen DeYoung, William Branigin, Missy Ryan and Damian Paletta contributed to this report.

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Iran says new sanctions mean the end of diplomacy - NBC News

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Tuesday slammed the Trump administration over new U.S. sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic's supreme leader and other top officials, with the Foreign Ministry saying the measures spell "permanent closure" of diplomacy between Tehran and Washington.

In this picture released on Wednesday, June 19, 2019, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting at his residence in Tehran, Iran.Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

President Donald Trump enacted the new sanctions on Monday against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his associates. U.S. officials also said they plan sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency on Tuesday quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi as saying that Trump's move means the end of diplomacy between the two countries.

"The fruitless sanctions on Iran's leadership and the chief of Iranian diplomacy mean the permanent closure of the road of diplomacy with the frustrated U.S. administration," Mousavi said.

June 24, 201902:13

Washington says the measures were taken to discourage Tehran from developing nuclear weapons and supporting militant groups. This comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran's unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.

Mousavi's statement echoed that of Iran's U.N. ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, who warned on Monday that the situation in the Persian Gulf is "very dangerous" and said any talks with the U.S. are impossible in the face of escalating sanctions and intimidation. Meanwhile, the U.S. envoy at the United Nations, Jonathan Cohen, said the Trump administration's aim is to get Tehran back to negotiations.

And on Tuesday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said the president was open to real negotiations and "all that Iran needs to do is walk through that open door"

Bolton spoke at a high-profile trilateral security summit in Jerusalem.

He said American envoys are surging across the region in hopes of finding a path out of escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran but that the silence of the Islamic Republic has been "deafening."

"There is simply no evidence that Iran has made the strategic decision to renounce nuclear weapons," Bolton said.

The sanctions follow Iran's downing last week of a U.S. surveillance drone, worth over $100 million, over the Strait of Hormuz, an attack that sharply escalated the crisis in the Persian Gulf. After the downing of the drone, Trump pulled back from the brink of retaliatory military strikes but continued his pressure campaign against Iran.

Trump last year re-imposed sanctions on Iran after pulling the U.S. out of the nuclear pact that world powers made with Tehran in 2015. Other nations stayed in the deal, which eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.

The latest round of sanctions denies Khamenei and senior Iranian military figures access to financial resources and blocks their access to any financial assets they have under U.S. jurisdiction.

Trump said the new sanctions are not only in response to the downing of the American drone. The U.S. has blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers this month near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has denied any involvement.

Citing those episodes and intelligence about other Iranian threats, the U.S. has sent an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region and deployed additional troops alongside the tens of thousands already there.

The sanctions were announced as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was holding talks in the Middle East with officials in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia about building a broad, global coalition that includes Asian and European countries to counter Iran. Pompeo is likely to face a tough sell in Europe and Asia, particularly from those nations still committed to the 2015 nuclear deal.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-says-new-sanctions-mean-end-diplomacy-n1021311

2019-06-25 07:38:00Z
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Winning ugly? Media hit Trump style over Iran, but sometimes it works - Fox News

It's a headline that captures the establishment's disdain for the president's unorthodox style of governing.

"Trump's Erratic Policy Moves Put National Security at Risk, Experts Warn," says The Washington Post.

Never mind that the first three critics quoted — after a defense from Mike Pence on CNN — were Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.

The other "experts" were two professors who were mildly critical and a lawyer who was supportive of Trump.

But the piece does get at a central question about this president in the wake of the aborted airstrikes against Iran, which he called off with 10 minutes to spare.

Does Trump preside over a messy and sometimes chaotic process? Of course. But sometimes that style gets results.

On Iran, for instance, many liberals liked that he pulled back on bombing over the downing of an unmanned drone, even as they say he extinguished a fire that he had started. (Maureen Dowd: "As shocking as it is to write this sentence, it must be said: Donald Trump did something right.")

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER DELIVERING 'HARD-HITTING' SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN

In negotiations, the president often makes a dramatic demand or threat, sparking a media and diplomatic furor over whether this time he's gone too far — then hammers out a compromise and claims victory. It's the style of a blustery New York real estate developer who's always one minute from walking away from the table, transferred to the staid, tradition-bound world of Washington.

Over the weekend, Trump called off a wave of ICE arrests that was to begin on Sunday, which he said would begin deportations of "millions" of illegal immigrants. That set off the predictable uproar.

Trump, after a reported call with Nancy Pelosi, said he was delaying the arrests for two weeks to allow time for negotiations with the Democrats. Nobody seems to think a deal can be struck in so short a period, but Trump won points with his base by threatening the mass arrests and again drove the news agenda.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE'S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF OF THE DAY'S HOTTEST STORIES

The Post's take: "Three policy turnarounds by President Trump this month have underscored his freewheeling governing style, an approach that some experts warn sends mixed messages and puts U.S. national security at risk ...

"The results of Trump's strategy on policy have been mixed at best — and few issues offer as complete a picture of the president's habitual brinkmanship as his effort to overhaul U.S. trade policy."

Remember when Trump threatened to close the Mexican border? The Beltway went ballistic. He didn't.

PELOSI SAYS 'VIOLATION OF STATUS' NOT A REASON TO DEPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Then he threatened to slap tariffs on all Mexican products, beginning at 5 percent, if the country didn't crack down on migrants fleeing Central America for the U.S. border. Lo and behold, Trump got a last-minute agreement. It's hard to judge how concrete these steps are, and The New York Times said most of them had been previously agreed to, but the perception — or perhaps the reality — is that he got Mexico to move.

Trump even used the tough-talk tactics against Canada before finally hammering out a trade deal. Whether the tariffs imposed on China ultimately lead to an agreement is another question.

The point is that while Trump's approach horrifies the traditionalists, he rarely carries out the well-publicized threats.

I see a link between the zig-zagging negotiating style and the repeated failures of Trump's vetting operation. Rather than wait for full-fledged inquiries and background checks, the president announces who he wants to nominate — and often has to pull back.

That was painfully on display when acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan had to withdraw over a violent family past that would have made clear he would be impossible to confirm. The same was true when the president had to drop his planned nominees to the Fed, Herman Cain and Steve Moore.

Axios obtained nearly 100 Trump transition vetting documents that clearly show the RNC and others were overwhelmed in trying to check on potential nominees. The documents show that ethical and management questions were raised about Scott Pruitt and Tom Price, who later had to resign their posts at EPA and HHS.

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As president, Trump has far more resources available to vet nominees, yet still rushes to name them before any real investigation.

This president isn't going to win any awards for a tidy management process. But when it comes to military action and trade talks, he sometimes wins ugly.

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/winning-ugly-media-hit-trump-style-over-iran-but-sometimes-it-works

2019-06-25 07:25:09Z
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Iran says US sanctions on Khamenei closed path to diplomacy - Aljazeera.com

Iran said on Tuesday that a decision by the United States to impose "hard-hitting" sanctions on the country's top leadership, including the supreme leader, has permanently closed the path to diplomacy between Tehran and Washington.

"Imposing useless sanctions on Iran's Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the commander of Iran's diplomacy (Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif) is the permanent closure of the path of diplomacy," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a tweet.

"Trump's desperate administration is destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security."

But the US National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is open to negotiations and "all that Iran needs to do is walk through that open door".

Bolton said the US wants to hold talks to "verifiably eliminate Iran's nuclear weapons programme, its ballistic missile delivery systems, its support for international terrorism and other malign behaviour worldwide," Bolton said in Jerusalem.

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He said US envoys have been in the region working to find a path to lowering tensions between the two countries, but that the silence of the Islamic Republic has been "deafening".

Trump targeted Khamenei and other top Iranian officials with sanctions on Monday, in an unprecedented move to increase pressure on Iran after Tehran's downing of an unmanned US drone last week.

"He [Trump] has hired not diplomats but arsonists and has allowed them to run a very, very aggressive policy
Jarrett Blanc, former state department official

Washington said it will also impose sanctions on Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif this week.

The targets of the new sanctions include senior military figures in Iran, blocking their access to any financial assets under US jurisdiction. They also work to deny Khamenei's and his close aides' access to money and support.

'The face of the Islamic Republic'

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said the decision to sanction the supreme leader would likely not have much effect.

"Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not left Iran in over 30 years since he was president in 1989. The last time he left Iran was on a state visit to China in April 1989," she said.

The Al Jazeera correspondent said the announcement that Iranian foreign minister would be sanctioned has come as a surprise here in Iran.

"Zarif is a career diplomat who lived in the US. He was at the UN for many years. He is known as the face of the Islamic Republic on the international stage."

Tensions have escalated in the region in recent weeks following a series of attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf. The US and its regional allies - Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) - have blamed Iran for the attacks - a charge Tehran has denied as "baseless".

The downing of the US surveillance drone last week almost brought the two foes to the brink of war, with Trump saying he initially approved attacks on Iran in retaliation of the drone shootdown but later pulled back.

Tehran said the drone violated its airspace but Washington insisted it was flying over international waters in the Gulf.

'Regime change policy'

The US president has said he is not seeking war with Iran, as he dispatched his top diplomats - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton - to the Middle East to shore up support against Iran.

Pompeo said he was hoping that more than 20 countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, would work together on building maritime security in the Gulf, which is a source of major oil supplies in the world.

But Jarrett Blanc from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that while the new sanctions will be largely symbolic, the underlying message could escalate the situation even further.

"Sanctions on the supreme leader and his office are almost certainly to be read in Iran as a confirmation that this administration is pursuing a regime change policy," said Blanc who was a senior State Department official under President Barack Obama, who oversaw the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Last year, Trump withdrew the US from the accord between Iran and world powers that curbed Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for easing sanctions. Relations in the region have worsened significantly since then.

"Even if President Trump denies it and even if other officials do not use that phrase. What is the targeting of leaders of the regime other than regime change?" he asked.

Blanc said that the message this administration is sending is "more likely to lead to escalation than de-escalation".

"President Trump says, and I tend to believe, that he is not looking for war in the Middle East but he does not track the details of the situation, and he has hired not diplomats but arsonists and has allowed them to run a very, very aggressive policy."

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/iran-sanctions-khamenei-closed-path-diplomacy-190625045240290.html

2019-06-25 05:47:00Z
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Senin, 24 Juni 2019

Trump announces new sanctions against Iran - CNN

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWttgM2Vi6w

2019-06-24 17:09:36Z
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Trump's Peace Plan Is Immoral, Impractical—and Could Blow Up the Middle East - Politico

Donald Trump, Jared Kushner and Benjamin Netanyahu — Kobi Gideon/Getty Images

Opinion

It sounds great on paper: The U.S. administration will hold a “peace to prosperity” economic workshop in Bahrain on June 25 and 26 to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Yet scratch the shiny PR surface and you’ll find a dangerously simplistic approach to a complicated situation. Anybody who followed the last 30 years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict understands that President Donald Trump’s announcement of this first step on the way to a deal is all form and no substance: a new name for the same failed idea known as “economic peace,” and before that as “a new Middle East.”

Putting economics first, before a political process, is more than a tactical error, yet another in a long line of failed attempts to advance towards a permanent two-state solution. The Trump administration’s focus on economics—led by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner—is a strategic mistake that could stymie the negotiations before they begin. If Trump and his team studied history, they would know that placing economics before core political issues is a slap in the face to the Palestinians. Of course, the Palestinians want to improve their quality of life; of course they want to build a growing economy. But these are secondary goals, to be pursued after self-determination is achieved. If the Palestinians could be “bought” with economic benefits, we would be long past the need for talks. Trump’s approach is not only immoral, it is impractical.

Story Continued Below

The truth is that economics were never enough to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Paris Agreement, which followed the Oslo Accords—a set of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed in the 1990s that were never implemented to the letter—focused on economics, and it did not salvage the deterioration of the security situation that resulted in the second intifada, a bloody 4-year Palestinian revolt against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Neither the first nor the second intifadas broke out for economic reasons (the Palestinian economy was not faring badly, relatively speaking). They erupted because the way forward was unclear, and because the Palestinians felt that the economic benefits offered would not lead to the end of the occupation. High hopes for trust-building had been dashed against the absence of a political plan to end the conflict. This void nurtured despair and disappointment, leading to angry uprisings that cost many lives on both sides.

That is the very real danger we are facing again. By putting economics first while ignoring the end game, Trump is repeating a colossal mistake: resuming talks without defining the end goal. For both Palestinians and Israelis, that goal should be ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel within 1967 borders, with necessary land swaps. Unless both parties and the mediating power state this clearly at the outset, the expectations gap will breed mistrust. Thus, sitting down together will be futile. This will lead to further disillusionment—and escalating violence. Unless the goal of the talks is explicitly defined as ending the conflict and establishing a Palestinian state, more lives will be lost.

Moreover, there will be no Jewish and democratic state without resolving the Palestinian issue.

The problem is that once Trump’s deal hits the table, it will be hard to ignore. Israel and the Palestinian Authority will have to respond. This will place Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, already considered a collaborator with Israel by most Palestinians, in a dangerous bind. He will not able to accept a deal that blatantly ignores Palestinian national aspirations, yet rejecting it will paint him as resisting peace. Domestic pressure may force him to stop cooperating with Israel on security, which will lead to a hike in terrorism. The path from there to igniting the entire area would be short, as the painful history of the conflict shows.

A Middle East explosion could be ignited by another conflict point: the rapidly escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which is connected to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The best way to effectively confront Iran is via a regional coalition of relatively moderate Sunni regimes, headed by Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, with tacit participation of Israel. But forming such a coalition is not possible unless a credible political process aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is underway; Arab people will not tolerate cooperation with Israel without it. Thus, for the Trump administration, which views confronting Iran as a key foreign policy objective, a plan that establishes this process should be critically important.

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Yet it is not clear whether Trump’s intentions are good or merely seek to do Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political favor. Presenting Abbas with an impossible choice will allow Netanyahu to win another round of the blame game and accuse the Palestinians of backing away from a good deal, playing into Netanyahu’s electoral base that rejects a two-state solution. But the result may be more death and an escalation that would delay constructive talks—and a Mideast anti-Iran coalition—for years.

To end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, protect Israelis and Palestinians, and prevent more bloodshed and greater instability in the Middle East, Trump’s dangerous “economics first” approach should be discarded—and, if not, opposed.

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https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/06/24/trump-peace-plan-middle-east-227209

2019-06-24 15:22:00Z
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