IMAGE SOURCE: tcu360.com
By Anita Stewart for Challenging the Rhetoric and Wise Women Media
Foreign news reports are saying that talks between the US and Iran on the topic of Nukes are underway but creative solutions and compromises need to be reached.
And at the same time, the stories coming out of the White House today are about the environment and Obama’s trip to India and how he is promoting renewable sources of energy to the people there. Seems hypocritical when we here in the US are restricted by cost and availability to implement widespread use of renewables.
And the other topic of conversation is opening up the US East Coast to offshore oil drilling but closing off portions of the Alaska Wildlife Refuge to Big Oil.
Talks On Nukes
Not too many people have heard about the latest Nuclear Deal with Iran and it does not seem to be a headline story for the corporate media.
Threats by American lawmakers have shed doubt and suspicion about the possibility of further sanctions on Iran by the US and other western powers. Because of Netanyahu’s endless call for war with Iran and the recent rise of the Islamic State (IS), many US lawmakers, Americans and the Israeli people are convinced that Iran wants free reign on their own Nuclear Program so they can make weapons unhindered. Iran insists that they want to use their Nuclear Industry as an energy source for their country.
During last week’s State of the Union address, Obama made it clear that he would veto any further sanctions on Iran.
On January 20th (2015), a new interim deal went into effect. This also included the lifting of sanctions on Iran for the next six months until a permanent deal can be agreed on by all parties which include: US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China. Talks are projected to conclude as early as March and a permanent deal agreed on in June.
Israel Opposes
However, the Israeli government insists that this deal will allow Iran to make nuclear weapons and is strongly against it.
Recently, the head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo told John McCain and a group of Senators accompanying him that changing up sanctions on Iran would be likened to “throwing a grenade” into the room. That making these changes could create “a temporary crisis in the negotiations, at the end of which talks would resume under improved conditions.”
It “…is dangerous for Israel, the region and the world,” Netanyahu said. “It leaves Iran the ability to produce the necessary material for a nuclear bomb within a few months and afterwards, to produce dozens of nuclear bombs…Israel adamantly opposes this agreement…I, as prime minister, stand up and say this unequivocally. We will do everything in order to prevent the arming of Iran with nuclear weapons capabilities…”
Netanyahu’s Visit To Lobby Congress
The Nuclear Deal with Iran is expected to eventually fade from view since Israel opposes it. Now the huge political wave coming at us is the pending visit of Netanyahu in March right before Israel’s elections. It is expected that he will address Congress and lobby DC lawmakers and pro-Israel Congress members for more war and to continue sanctions on Iran. His invitation was meant to be a partisan effort by the GOP to thwart any plans by Obama and others to lift the sanctions on Iran and to come to a final deal on Iran’s nukes. Obama has already said that he will not meet with Netanyahu during his visit.
The question of the hour is WHY? Americans need to wonder why a foreign head of state is addressing US Congress and then ask themselves why our representatives are being lobbied on matters regarding foreign policy and possible involvement in yet more war by a foreign head of state. This is not the first time Netanyahu has visited and addressed Congress (he did the same in 2011), but the timing of this visit is certainly significant.
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