Thursday, December 19, 2013

Let the Games Begin

Iran's behavior over the "interim deal" bodes well for the value of any nuclear agreement we strike with Iran over the next 6 months, eh?

The interim nuclear deal with Iran has yet to be translated into French and already the Iranians are pushing the goalposts and violating the spirit if not the letter of the agreement:

Despite the fact that the interim agreement with the rest of the world to negotiate about removing Iranian sanctions explicitly states that nearly all the sanctions continue until a final deal is agreed to, Iran is trying to stretch the terms of the interim deal. There are several examples of this already. The Assad government in Syria, which is also under a lot of international sanctions, recently ordered new food supplies and listed Iran as the guarantor of payment. The Syrians did not list one of the foreign Iranian bank accounts that are to be unfrozen by the interim agreement but instead stated that to an Iranian bank would take care of payment. This is still forbidden by the sanctions, but the Iranians were always bold and possessed of lots of initiative. In that spirit the Iranians are protesting the implementation of new sanctions authorized before the interim agreement. Actually, the interim agreement does not prevent new sanctions, something some Western politicians are calling for to give the Iranians more incentive to negotiate and implement a mutually acceptable final agreement. Iran does not see it that way, making it clear that the negotiations will be difficult and success is definitely not assured. The rest of the world is going to learn why the Gulf Arabs are so wary of Iran.

Huh. Iran is pocketing the sanctions relief to help bloody Assad emerge victorious and further weaken sanctions by appealing to humanitarian impulses to help Syrians placed in danger by Assad's bombardments and blockades? Get out!



And we call the Iranians the Nuke Nazis? What are we thinking?

Face it. When the Iranians are done with us, Kerry will wake up hung over, naked, handcuffed to a tree in a Geneva park, with insults in Farsi sharpied all over his body.

UPDATE: Yeah, this will work out just swell:

At the same time Iran is violating its legal obligations imposed by the Security Council, and postponing implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Plan of Action, its economy has already begun to reap the benefits of the Joint Plan of Action.

Have a super sparkly nuclear-armed-Iran day.

UPDATE: Doh! Sometimes I post too quickly. In a post about Iran out-negotiating us, I really should have called the Iranians "Souk Nazis" ...