Israel Matzav: No wonder Bibi was so mad, they pulled an Oslo on him

Sunday, November 24, 2013

No wonder Bibi was so mad, they pulled an Oslo on him

The Back Channel reports that William Burns, number 2 at the State Department, led back channel talks with Iran over the last six months that presented Prime Minister Netanyahu with a fait accomplis, much as was done to Yitzchak Rabin with regard to the Oslo Accords with the PLO 20 years ago. And al-Monitor, which publishes Back Channel, agreed to cover up the story when they discovered it two weeks ago. This is from the first link.

Al-Monitor learned that Burns was in Geneva during the second round of nuclear talks between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, UK, France, Russia, China) plus Germany (P5+1) and Iran held here November 7-9, and subsequently learned additional details about the bilateral channel, but agreed to hold the story at the administration’s request until the conclusion of the third round of nuclear talks that ended here in a breakthrough tonight.

Al-Monitor also learned that Burns is also currently in Geneva during this, the third round, of P5+1 Iran nuclear negotiations. Both times, he did not stay at the main diplomatic hotel, the Intercontinental, where many of the negotiations have taken place, but at another site, the US official said. Talwar has been seen by journalists at bus stops in the city and running towards the hotel at various times during the last three rounds of talks here; it could not be confirmed if he was relaying messages between the discussions taking place on site at the hotel, where the US, European and Iranian delegations stay, to Burns at another site.

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“Running up to the [June] 2013 Iranian election, there was a sense that we had to wait and see if the Iranians under the new administration were serious about negotiations,” the US official said. “And it became clear after the Rouhani election, that they seem serious.”

“Following the election, as has been reported, Obama sent Rouhani a letter that was delivered in early August,” the official said. “Following the exchange of letters between the two presidents, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns met bilaterally with Iranian counterparts before UNGA.”

“In those conversations, Burns and his team began to develop ideas that could be fed into the P5+1 process,” the US official said. “All of our bilateral discussions are designed to support and advance the P5+1 process; they have never been designed as a substitute. “

“As the P5+1 negotiations started picking up, Burns was joined as needed by [Under Secretary of State] Wendy Sherman,” the US official said. “They worked together to develop ideas that could be further negotiated with the P5+1. The goal, everything in the bilateral channel, was to be fed into the P5+1 channel,” the official stressed.

The US has notified P5+1 partners about the bilateral channel, the US official said, but would not disclose when. “We briefed them on the bilateral channel at the appropriate time,” the US official said. There are signs that at least some P5+1 partners were not aware of it at the second round of nuclear talks in Geneva Nov 7-9, during which the six world powers spent much of the meeting agreeing on their own text which they finally presented to Zarif late November 9.

“At the second and third rounds [of P5+1 talks with Iran in Geneva], Burns was present on the margins, to be available to the P5+1 and the Iranians, and to make sure the ideas discussed were integrated back into the P5+1,” the US official said.

“Given that so much of the economic pressure on Iran comes from the United States among other reasons, that is one reason it was important to establish this direct channel,” the official said. “Our P5+1 partners all encouraged us to have a bilateral channel, and they all have their own. And they told us, eventually to get an agreement…these discussions would be necessary.”

“None of the substance in the bilateral channel differed from the P5+1,” the US official stressed. “New issues weren’t raised. It enabled more detailed discussions [to occur] in the P5+1. It’s not like any of the issues are a secret.”

One can only wonder when or if Netanyahu was told about this.

Last week, Israel's Channel 10 reported that Iranian-born Obama confidante Valerie Jarett was meeting with Iran for a year.

According to a report on Israel's Channel 10 News, most of the details of the proposed agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) were settled in clandestine talks between American and Iranian officials that took place in the Gulf States - not in Geneva where the sides have been holding high level meetings.

Citing an unnamed Israeli source, Channel 10 reported that the US representative to the secret talks was senior advisor to the president, Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett and her Iranian counterpart was former foreign minister and current head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi.

The source said the talks had progressed to such a stage that all that was left was for the sides to pen an agreement, which US Secretary of State John Kerry was supposed to do last weekend in Geneva. What prevented the deal's signing, the source claimed, was Israel's stark opposition.