Iran is to blame for sanctions
Guardian / Meir Javedanfar
22-Jun-2010 (3 comments)

International efforts led by the US, and now the EU, to impose sanctions against Iran so soon after the Turkey-Iran-Brazil deal is seen by some analysts as a missed opportunity to engage Iran. Others see it as a sign that the US cannot take "yes" from Iran, meaning that it is unwilling to accept Iranian compromises.

However, if we look at Iran's behaviour, it is in fact the Iranian leadership that has missed an opportunity to engage the United States. Since coming to office, Barack Obama has tried to reach out to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, through his private message, sent in May 2009, calling for "co-operation in regional and bilateral relations" between the US and Iran.

This is in addition to the deal Obama offered the Iranian government last October, under which Iran was to have shipped close to 75% of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) for conversion to nuclear fuel. In order to reach that deal, Obama was willing to ignore three UN resolutions that call for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. Not only did Khamenei reject his offer, he ordered Iranian scientist to upgrade the level of enrichment to 20%. This advanced Iran's ability to reach levels of enrichment that can also be used to make a bomb.

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Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Nuclear issue

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

is a BS made up issue. The USA unlike Britain wants regime change in Iran. Therefore it does not matter what the IRI does. The USA is just coming up with reason to press them. They don't want better relations with IRI.

The USA has given up on IRI and wants a new regime.  They want a different regime which is not so ideologically opposed to the USA. One hopefully run by people sympathetic to US. This is why there is no interest in negotiation.


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

IRI

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

has absolutely not ended manipulation by the British. The whole IRI is a British creation. Mullahs and their system was conceived and made by UK. Jimmy Carter was also heavily used by the British to this end.


BabakSabzevari

Javedanfar's article has

by BabakSabzevari on

Javedanfar's article has been ripped apart by readers in the Comment section of The Guardian.

Here's a sample:

Claudius

22 Jun 2010, 5:22PM

Mr Javedanfar,

Your article is
entirely based on your assumption that your readers “hopefully” do not
know any of the following two key points:



One: The White
House requirement of Iran was not limited to Iran sending most of its
enriched material outside the country; it also expected to succeed in
the ensuing negotiations to arm-wrestle Iran into giving up enrichment
altogether – basically asking Iran to suspend what it is entitled to by
law. The trade had always been meant to build goodwill until
negotiations started, but when the goodwill was shown, the US chose to
point to what it had hoped to achieve at the end of the negotiations as
the reason why the deal was not good enough.

Two: Brazil and
Turkey had discussed the details of the agreement with the White House
prior to the agreement. The US gave its consent for the effort – hoping
Iranians would not agree to it – but decided it preferred to go ahead
with the sanctions, probably because the idea of his being “soft” on the
international scene is being raised by the Tea Baggers so successfully
as to raise the fear of a loss in the mid-term elections. That is why
Brazil leaked the letters exchanged between them and the White House in
protest to show how the US essentially moved the goal post afterwards.

Given
the two above key facts the premise of your article – that Iran chose
to miss an opportunity to deal with an Obama willing to reach out to
Iran – is to say the least misinformation. Obama and the US want better
relations with Iran only on their own terms: agree you are not to be
trusted with nuclear technology, accept to stay in NPT and adhere to
those terms that are your obligations and forego those terms that are
your entitlements; tow our line on Israeli-Arab conflict – then we won’t
hurt you militarily or economically. That is a lot to ask of a country
whose only claim to fame is to have ended half century of US and
British political manipulation, a country surrounded by US forces on
three sides and threatened daily that the military option is on the
table or on the way!