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.
...
“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.
A White House spokesperson denied the report. "Those rumors are absolutely, 100 percent false," said Bernadette Meehan.
The denial was false. And the reports weren't 100% false - only 50%. That's got to be considered 'truth' for this administration.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Oslo accords, William Burns
Sanctions hurting Iran, but still no change
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
State Department Under Secretary for Political Affairs William F. Burns and Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey told the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week that the sanctions that were imposed on Iran are hurting that country's economy, but that hurt has not resulted in any change in Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Burns was joined before the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Stuart Levey, Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, who detailed the various sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the United Nations, and his office's efforts to enforce them. Treasury officials have visited 24 countries in recent months to persuade governments and businesses to watch out for possible violations.
As a result, "Iran has dramatically reduced access to financial services from reputable banks, and is finding it increasingly difficult to conduct major transactions in dollars or euros," Levey said. "With great regularity, major companies are announcing that they have curtailed or completely pulled out of business dealings with Iran."
Iran has taken to trying to hide its role "in transactions by removing or stripping their names from transaction documents," Levey said. Oil companies are not investing in new projects in Iran and other contracts have been canceled.
That's contributing to an escalating unemployment rate, especially among people younger than 30 years old. That is helping fuel internal political dissatisfaction and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – a key target of the sanctions plan – "is taking increasing control over significant portions of the Iranian economy," Levey said.
Who will blink first? Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's going to be the Iranians.
Labels: Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear program, Stuart Levey, William Burns
Turkish Foreign Minister sees Israel disappearing
The Turks are sounding more and more like the Iranians all the time.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a group of reporters in Istanbul, which included some Israelis, that he sees
Israel disappearing into a binational state which would come under Turkish influence along with the rest of the Middle East.
Israel will not be able to remain over time an independent country, and a bi-national state will be established on all of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River in which Jews and Palestinians will live,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a number of meetings that he held with journalists and academics, including a number of Israeli academics. Davutoglu’s vision, which he revisited a number of times, is for Turkey to become a dominant force in the Middle East and further, that it will be the protector state of the above-cited bi-national state within a number of years.
...
The central idea that was put forward by Davutoglu, which he has been trying to promote by means of a number of journalists and Turkish government officials, is that Israel as an independent state is illegitimate in the region and, as such, is destined to disappear. That assessment is rooted in a deeper ideology that aspires to restore to Turkey the historic influence it wielded during the era of the Ottoman empire, which ruled the Middle East for close to 400 years. Davutoglu said on a number of occasions that he believed that peace would be restored to the Middle East only in the wake of deep and substantial Turkish intervention.
In other words, Davutoglu and Erdogan aspire to set a new regional order — Erdogan by means of populist rhetoric and closer ties with Turkey’s neighbors, Syria and Iran; Davutoglu by means of promulgating the ideological basis. This new order, as noted, has no room for Israel as an independent state. Both Erdogan and Davutoglu have been advancing a policy that promotes closer ties with Syria and Iran, and moves away from the West. Davutoglu added in his meetings with the journalists and academics that the historic powers, (Britain and France) which conquered the Middle East from the Ottomans, are the ones that are responsible for the difficult situation that currently reigns in the Middle East, since they drew the borders in a way that suited their own political and military interests, without taking into account the demographic affiliation of the region’s residents.
I don't agree with the first sentence of that last paragraph. Davutoglu and Erdogan are apparently interested in restoring the Ottoman Empire, but in that context, Iran would be a rival and not a partner. I believe that Turkey's outreach to Syria is sincere, but it's outreach to Iran is nothing but tactical. That would explain
this from a cable of a meeting between US Undersecretary of State William Burns and Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sinirlioglu.
Sinirlioglu contended Turkey's diplomatic efforts are beginning to pull Syria out of Iran's orbit. He said a shared hatred for Saddam had been the original impetus for their unlikely alliance. "Now, their interests are diverging." Once again pitching Israel-Syria proximity talks, Sinirlioglu contended Israel's acceptance of Turkey as a mediator could break Syria free of Tehran's influence and further isolate Iran.
Turkey hates Iran as much as everyone else does. But they want to use Syria to extend their influence throughout the region and to reinstate the Ottoman Empire.
Labels: Ahmet Davutoglu, Ottoman Empire, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sinirlioglu, William Burns
