Iran Newsclips, February 4, 2015
david.cutler
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US, Iran discussing nuclear talks compromise, AP
Pillar: Both Sides Need to Concede to Get an Iranian Nuclear Deal, The National Interest
Rouhani Sharply Criticizes U.S. over Nuclear Talks, Uskowi on Iran
Levine and Eran: Netanyahu is wrong: Antagonizing Obama won't make U.S. tougher on Iran, Haaretz
Rubin: Netanyahu and Boehner are wrong to think they know what Iran wants, Washington Post
Beyond sanctions and kerfuffles, the Iran deal Netanyahu wants to avoid, JTA
US allies puzzled by March deadline for Iran deal, Al-Monitor
Clifton: Who Are the Billionaires Attacking Obama’s Iran Diplomacy? The Nation
Iran Drafts Law To Resume Nuclear Activities In Response To Sanctions, RFE/RL
Iran sweetens oil contracts to counter sanctions and price plunge, Reuters
US, Iran discussing nuclear talks compromise, AP, February 3, 2015
With time for negotiations running short, the U.S and Iran are discussing a compromise that would let Iran keep much of its uranium-enriching technology but reduce its potential to make nuclear weapons, two diplomats tell The Associated Press. Such a compromise could break the decade-long deadlock on attempts to limit Iranian activities that could be used to make such arms: Tehran refuses to meet U.S.-led demands for deep cuts in the number of centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium, a process that can create material for anything from chemotherapy to the core of an atomic bomb.
Pillar: Both Sides Need to Concede to Get an Iranian Nuclear Deal, The National Interest, February 2, 2015
For anyone keeping score of such things, the U.S. and its partners could henceforth make significant concessions to close a final deal and still be well ahead on the scorecard of concessions elicited from the other side. But assessment of any agreement should not be based on any such scorecard anyway. Again, it instead should be a matter of comparing the conditions produced by an agreement with the conditions under no agreement. Another often-overlooked consideration is that a good agreement would be one that gives both sides reason to observe it, rather than being seen by either side as a forced imposition to be violated or discarded at the first opportunity.
Rouhani Sharply Criticizes U.S. over Nuclear Talks, Uskowi on Iran, February 4, 2015
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today sharply criticized the U.S. for pressuring Iran over its nuclear program. “They tell us ‘we don’t want Iran to make atomic bomb,’ you who have made atomic bombs,” Rouhani said in a public gathering in the city of Isfahan. “We don’t need atomic bomb. We have great, self-sacrificing and unified nation. This nation sent a satellite into space,” Rouhani said. “(But) you, in America couldn’t even manage to resolve the health (insurance) problem.”
Levine and Eran: Netanyahu is wrong: Antagonizing Obama won't make U.S. tougher on Iran, Haaretz, February 4, 2015
But as Israel’s premier, he also has a duty to preserve the U.S. government's support, goodwill and readiness to stand by Israel. Netanyahu wants the United States to adopt a tougher stand in the negotiations with Iran, yet he will not achieve this by antagonizing the U.S. president and going over his head to address Congress. One can only hope that the prime minister's show of force against the U.S. administration will not get it so angered as to weaken its very strong position on a variety of problems facing Israel in the international arena.
Rubin: Netanyahu and Boehner are wrong to think they know what Iran wants, Washington Post, February 4, 2015
Sanctions, along with many other external and internal factors, probably contributed to the mood of the Iranian people that made them vote overwhelmingly for President Rouhani and also made it impossible for the establishment to deny him victory. Rouhani does not argue that Iran has no choice but to give in to pressure: instead he proposes a different vision of Iran’s relationship to the world, a belief in the potential for cooperation. He faces a powerful establishment that sees the U.S. with pretty much the same cognitive biases through which Boehner and Netanyahu view Iran. That establishment will interpret more threats as proof that the U.S. will not remove sanctions whatever Iran does. It is in our interest to prove Rouhani right by giving him the chance to prove the hardliners wrong. Otherwise, we might as well settle matters of life and death by flipping coins.
Beyond sanctions and kerfuffles, the Iran deal Netanyahu wants to avoid, JTA, February 4, 2015
Nader said that Iranian influence was a function of the strengthening in recent years of larger regional powers like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and the collapse of weaker states such as Yemen, Iraq and Syria. “Having the capability to enrich uranium in itself is not going to make Iran more powerful,” he said. Hurlburt said pulling away from talks would accelerate Iran’s nuclear track — and its influence. The problem, she said, is that more pressure on Iran or military strikes, an option that some believe Israel is considering, would be counterproductive — “[making] Iran more intransigent, more likely to develop a weapon.”
US allies puzzled by March deadline for Iran deal, Al-Monitor, February 2, 2015
But some US administration allies are puzzled that what they consider a soft deadline for a framework agreement for a final Iran nuclear deal has seemingly become the de facto deadline, rather than the June 30 deadline that Iran and the six world powers agreed to in November. The US administration has “bought two months, but sold three,” a Western diplomat, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor.
Clifton: Who Are the Billionaires Attacking Obama’s Iran Diplomacy? The Nation, February 3, 2015
A document (viewable here) acquired by The Nation lists TIP’s major donors from October 2012 to September 2013, revealing that just two billionaire hedge funders provided over one-third of the group’s total revenue. The two funders with the outsize roles were GOP megadonor Paul Singer and Hillary Clinton booster Richard Perry. Each contributed $1 million, making them TIP’s two largest donors.
Iran Drafts Law To Resume Nuclear Activities In Response To Sanctions, RFE/RL, February 3, 2015
Iran’s parliament voted on February 3 to speed up discussions of a motion that asks the government to resume all its nuclear activities if fresh sanctions are passed by the United States. Out of 205 lawmakers present, 173 voted in favor of giving the motion an emergency status, Iranian news agencies reported. It wasn’t clear from the reports when the discussions would resume. The draft bill says that in the event of fresh U.S. sanctions, Iran is obliged to immediately resume all nuclear activities that have been frozen in exchange of sanctions relief under the Geneva interim nuclear deal Tehran reached with world powers in 2013.
Iran sweetens oil contracts to counter sanctions and price plunge, Reuters, February 3, 2015
To prepare for any agreement, it has already circulated new draft oil contracts to foreign firms to attract business once the restrictions end, Iranian oil officials and Western diplomatic sources said. Such deals would involve helping Iran revive aging fields and develop new ones, they added.