USA negotiates with Iran, while selling advanced weapons to Iran’s opponents!

Threatening Iran with military attacks while also negotiating with it only casts doubts on the sincerity of the Obama administration to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement and to seek out Iran’s help to thwart the advances made by the Islamic State.

It Is Untenable to Seek a Nuclear Agreement With Iran While Also Arming its Opponents, Huffington Post 06/09/20 Ever since the negotiations between the administration of President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and P5+1 — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany — began in earnest in September 2013, and particularly since the announcement of the Lausanne Accord, the Obama administration has been trying to mollify the opponents of the nuclear accord. The most outspoken foes of the agreement are the usual suspects, namely, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Arab nations of the Persian Gulf area. They all claim that the agreement with Iran threatens their national security, but offer no viable alternative to the negotiations and a comprehensive agreement. What they really want is a new war in the Middle East, this time against Iran. As the President rightly stated on April 2 when the Lausanne Accord was announced, insisting that Iran dismantle its nuclear infrastructure and continuing the sanction regime and even tightening it up further will eventually lead to war with Iran.

And how has the Obama administration has been trying to mollify Israel, Saudi Arabia and their allies? By threatening Iran and selling more advanced weapons to them. Last October, the U.S. announced sale of new missiles to Saudi Arabia worth $1.75 billion. This is on top of $60 billion worth of weapons that the U.S. has sold to that nation since 2010.

U.S. allies in the P5+1 have also been busy selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Over roughly the same period, Saudi Arabia has spent $6 billion buying weapons from Britain andpaid France another $3 billion to deliver arms to the Lebanese army, which will only worsen the sectarian strife in that nation. The U.S. has also been replenishing Saudi Arabia’s arsenal since it began its aggression against Yemen, which only exacerbates tensions between that country and Iran.

In May, the Pentagon announced sale of $1.9 billion in new weapons to Israel to replenish its arsenal after the Gaza war of last summer in which U.S.-made weaponswere used to attack and kill Palestinians. Earlier, in February, U.S. agreed to sell 14 additional F-35 stealth fighters to Israel, on top of 19 fighters agreed in 2010. In April, Germany delivered Israel its 5th Dolphin-class submarine. Germany paid two-thirds of the cost. Germany has already agreed to sell a 6th submarine to Israel.

Why does Israel need submarines, when it faces no challenge in the Mediterranean Sea? These submarines are also armed with nuclear warheads and can stay in international waters for extended periods of time. Thus, they can only be intended for Iran…….

The net effect of this is not only clouding the prospects for a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran but also poisoning the political atmosphere in Tehran. Just like their American, Israeli and Saudi counterparts, Tehran’s hardliners too oppose the nuclear agreement (as I’ve explained here, here and here). Hardliners in the Majles [parliament] and in the IRGC have been loudly protesting nuclear negotiations with P5+1. Both President Rouhani and Iran’s chief diplomat, Foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, have been threatened with impeachment, and Zarif has even been threatened with death.

Provocations by U.S. allies in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, which has attacked Yemen and supported terrorist groups in Syria only to prevent thaw between Iran and the U.S., will only make Iran’s hardliners more determined in their efforts to scuttle the final agreement. Selling arms to such “allies,” which are acting against the true national interests of this country, will only worsen an already terrible situation in the Middle East. Threatening Iran with military attacks while also negotiating with it only casts doubts on the sincerity of the Obama administration to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement and to seek out Iran’s help to thwart the advances made by the Islamic State. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/muhammad-sahimi/it-is-untenable-to-seek-a_b_7536884.html?utm_hp_ref=world