Extremist
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is held by many of Iran's critics as the personification of extremism, and a threat to regional and international security. So what does it say when he comes across as
more reasonable than the Republican Congress and the Israeli prime minister?
Khamenei said this week that he could accept a compromise in the nuclear talks and gave his strongest defence yet of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s decision to negotiate with the west, a policy opposed by powerful hardliners at home.
A policy opposed by hardliners in
the United States and Israel, as well:
But the real issue here is that Netanyahu and the Republicans are trying to tank the nuclear negotiations with Iran. Even if they had crossed all their Is and dotted their Ts they'd still be trying to stand in the way of a more peaceful world. That's the problem, not the lack of protocol. And it's a big one.
This is what the Republicans and Netanyahu are
trying to tank:
The nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are aimed at clinching an accord that would ease western concerns that Tehran could pursue a covert nuclear weapons program. On offer in return is the lifting of sanctions that have ravaged the Iranian economy.
And the
Republicans are
trying to tank those negotiations by imposing
new sanctions on Iran. Even Israel's security agency
Mossad agrees on what new sanctions would accomplish:
The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has broken ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling U.S. officials and lawmakers that a new Iran sanctions bill in the U.S. Congress would tank the Iran nuclear negotiations.
Please head below the fold for more on this story.
Meanwhile, the French minister of foreign affairs and international development, the British foreign secretary, the German federal minister for foreign affairs, and the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy have written an extraordinary joint op-ed titled:
Give diplomacy with Iran a chance
One of the most dangerous international security issues is in the hands of negotiators, with support from the White House, Iran's Supreme Leader, Israel's security agency, and Europe's leading powers, but extremists in Iran and Israel are opposed, and the extremists who are the Republicans in Congress are trying their best to prevent those negotiations from succeeding. Because to the Republicans,
this is a bad thing:
Obama’s letter suggested the possibility of US-Iranian co-operation in fighting Islamic State if a nuclear deal was secured, the paper said, quoting the diplomat.
Khamenei’s letter was “respectful” but noncommittal, it quoted the diplomat as saying.
Respectful. The Supreme Leader of Iran not only sides with the White House, Israel's security agency, and Europe's leading powers in supporting attempts at a peaceful resolution, but he does so with respect. Congressional Republicans not only oppose attempts at a peaceful resolution, but they
can't even manage respect.
Who are the dangerous extremists?