Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:11 pm
You saw the headlines a few days ago. An Associated Press ‘exclusive’, meaning no actual investigative journalism, just some Obama-hating insider handing an AP reporter some papers in a folder. The contents initiated the headline that there was a “Deal to let Iran inspect own sites.” This was an alleged side agreement that took precedent over one segment of a recently negotiated promise from Iran that it would cease any attempts to produce nuclear weaponry and bombs. Republican legislators and would-be candidates for president politically rioted in the media at the side agreement development. The usual right-wing suspects like Mitch McConnell, harrumphed from their side of the aisle that all was lost.
Nobody trusts the Iranians and a nuclear attack on Wichita is but weeks away. Right-wing CNS News quoted GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush as calling the deal “a farce,” tweeting, “Nuclear inspections of state sponsors of terrorism can’t work on the honor system.” Of course corporate mass polluters (and contributors) are welcome to do ALL of their own inspections. Now, Bush can proceed with his plan to bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran if elected. Trump and Walker will be riding shotgun for yet another “Shock and Awe” attack.
Great idea. Let’s attack a country that’s finally yielded to sanctions and has expressed a willingness to back off deadly nuclear weapons production in return for lifting a number of those sanctions. Now, whether we attack or not, Republican politicians want to vote down a negotiated agreement and keep repressive sanctions in place that have negatively impacted the population to a tremendous degree. Why not go Hiroshima and Nagasaki on them? Estimates from Atomic Archive.com put the combined death tolls at about 105,000 dead and 94,000 wounded adding up to nearly 200,000 casualties.
A site called “Stop the War coalition” maintains that the death toll, alone, reached 200,000 when radiation-related cancers and long-term burn effects were factored in. The site also includes an interesting historical take on why the bombings were unnecessary.
In his goofy, sideshow speech in a half-full Mobile, Alabama football stadium, Donald Trump criticized the “73-year-old” Secretary of State and his negotiating skills. You’re wrong, Trump. John Kerry is 71. Your buddy Mitch is 73. Trump then called for the world’s mightiest army. He reasoned, we’d be so powerful that we’d never have to use any of that might. Everybody would be afraid of us. Excuse me, Donald; we have the mightiest army now. The most sophisticated weapons and nuclear weapons galore. While considered nuclear, China has very few. Putin is no hurry for an arms race. And yet, few in the Muslim world seem to be “afraid” as ISIS and their running partners continue to wreak havoc throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.
So, let’s at least tap lightly on the hysteria brake here. Yes, there is some kind of side agreement, maybe two. By its own admission, AP concedes their reporter saw a draft and not the final product. And the agreement is not with any of the parties that negotiated the original Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The side agreement is between Iran and the UN’s nuclear oversight arm, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). AP says it was approved by the core negotiating countries, including, the U.S.
To suggest that the agreement will be closed forever to prying eyes is nonsense. According to Business Insider, bylaws allow any one of the 35 members of the IAEA board to request a look-see at the agreement. It’s happened before. That nobody in a position of power involved in the talks has the slightest idea what’s in this agreement is to strain credulity to the breaking point. If a member of the news peanut gallery supposedly had some access, so did the power boys and girls.
In the draft of the alleged agreement, IAEA inspectors will no longer include the Parchin military complex in their rounds. The site came under pressure over a decade ago as fashioning some nuclear parts together for the purpose of creating a nuclear bomb. They were caught back in 2003 and Iran has somewhat behaved itself since. There was another nuclear agreement, sort of a JPOA Jr that Iran has honored.
The Parchin site is now supposedly busying itself with detonators. If so, it must not be of great concern to the good guys. Do you really believe that IAEA couldn’t muscle its way into Parchin if it so chose? Agreement notwithstanding, if IAEA wants access to Parchin, it gets it. Do you really believe that the most sophisticated of the world’s negotiators are going to risk Iran becoming a nuclear state?
Russia and the U.S. have the most nuclear capability of any nuclar-weapons states in the world. These powerhouses are followed by irrelevant quantities in the United Kingdom, France, China and, through its NATO ties, some access for Germany. All of the latter were involved in JCPOA negotiations. All have signed on as either signatories or ratifiers of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) treaty. India, Pakistan and North Korea are the remaining three countries that possess nuclear capability. None are signees of NPT. Of course, Israel is unofficially in the nuclear grouping, and is a signatory to NPT, though playing coy with the exact description of their nuclear weaponry. Iran is not and never has been declared a nuclear-weapons state.
Iran could release the wording of the side document and any additional side agreements in the pipeline. And, repeating for Trump supporters, members of the IAEA Board of Governors could also request the reveal. Of the board members, relatively strong American allies, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia would be the best bets to make such a request, as could the United States, also a board member.
If Republican legislators are convinced that a NSA peek at phone numbers will give the agency every conceivable piece of information about an average American citizen, surely they would feel secure in knowing that there’s not a single element of the Iranian “nuclear” program that isn’t under the most powerful oversight microscope ever created. For whatever reason the side-agreement was approved, there still remains not one overlooked and intensely monitored spec of nuclear, centrifuges, reactors, uranium enrichment and any and all elements that could factor into a real-life nuclear threat under the JCPOA.
Once reluctant Democrats are now publicly granting approval to the agreement, post-side deal. JCPOA is now beyond the Republican’s reach.
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