Can any journalist in the WH ask VP Vance:
Article 13 in the MOU says the 60 day negotiations don’t begin until Iran has already started receiving its unfrozen assets under Article 11. So the money starts moving before the clock does.
If Iran doesn’t negotiate in good faith once that begins, what leverage does the U.S. have left?
This cycle is as exhausting as it is predictable.
Hezbollah fires rockets/drones at Isreal/IDF, often per Iran’s request (testing parameters of its freedom of action).
Israel responds with proportionate force.
The world rains opprobrium down on Israel, the sole obstacle to peace in the region.
And now, the logic of the MOU will compel Trump to join the anti-Israel chorus.
Every Republican defending this MOU knows that if a Democrat had signed a document like this, they'd be blasting them to kingdom come. It's actually worse than the JCPOA. Iran made out like bandits. And now they know they can bring us to our knees with a few mines.
I have never ever seen in my life the so obvious visualization of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” as I have seen with this MOU with the Iranian regime
Unbelievable, simply stunning
Como me fascina que la fifa haya ampliado los países competidores con la esperanza de que China o La India encuentren 11 que pateen bien la pelota y ahora tenemos a la Republica Democratica del Congo o Curazao compitiendo palo a palo con los europeos
Marco Rubio, Senate floor, September 2015
“I do want to be recorded for history’s purposes, for I know what is going to happen with regards to this, if it goes through. Iran will immediately use the money it is receiving in sanctions relief to begin to build up its conventional capabilities. It will establish the most dominant military power in the region outside of the United States and it will raise the price of us operating in the region. They’re going to build anti-access capabilities, rockets capable of destroying our aircraft carriers and ships, continue to build these swift boats that are able to come on us, these fast boats that are able to swarm our naval assets, and they’ll make it harder and harder for U.S. troops to be in the region.
“They’ll also work with other terrorist groups in the region to target American service men and women, and they may or may not deny that they’re involved but they will target us and raise the price of our presence in the Middle East until they hope to completely pull us out of that region.
“They’ll also continue to build long-range missiles, missiles capable of reaching the United States. Those are not affected by this deal, and they’ll continue to build them as they have been doing.
“And then, at some point in the near future, when the time is right, they will build a nuclear weapon, and they will do so because at that point they will know that they have become immune, that we will no longer be able to strike their nuclear program because the price of doing so will be too high.
“This is not just a work of imagination. It exists in the world today. It’s called North Korea, where a lunatic possesses dozens of nuclear weapons and a long-range rocket that can already reach the United States. And we cannot do anything about it. An attack on North Korea today would result in an attack on Tokyo or Seoul or Guam or Hawaii or California. And so the world must now live with a lunatic in possession of nuclear weapons.
“And this is the goal Iran has as well, to reach a point where they become immune to any sort of credible military threat because the price of a military strike would be too high. And then they become an established nuclear weapons power. And never in the history of the world has such a regime ever possessed weapons so capable of destruction. Iran is led by a Supreme Leader who is a radical Shia cleric with an apocalyptic vision of the future. He is not a traditional geopolitical actor who makes decisions on the basis of borders or simply history or because of ambitions. He has a religious apocalyptic vision of the future, one that calls for triggering a conflict between the non-Muslim world and the Muslim world, one that he feels especially obligated to trigger. And he’s going to possess nuclear weapons?
“This is the world that we are on the verge of leaving our children to inherit, and perhaps we ourselves will have to share in.
“So I want to be recorded for history’s purposes, if nothing else, to say that those of us who oppose this deal understood where it would lead, and we are making a terrible mistake. And I fear that passage of this deal will make it even harder for us to prevent it.
“And I hope there’s still time for us to change our minds, but here’s the good news: Iran may have a Supreme Leader, but America does not. In this nation we have a republic, and soon we will have new leaders, perhaps in this chamber, but also in the executive branch. And I pray that on their first day in office they will reverse this deal and reimpose the sanctions and back them up with a credible threat of military force, or history will condemn us for not doing what needed to be done at this critical moment in the world’s history.”
I was bullish on the war when Trump was hitting *1,000 targets a day* and Bibi was saying “Iranians the time to rise up is nearly at hand”
The day after Iranian citizens were *calling in drone hits on secret police thugs hiding under bridges* Trump backed off at behest of 🇹🇷🇶🇦🇵🇰
The new “rational” leader in Iran, Ghalibaf, and one of the key negotiators of the MOU, speaking on Iranian state TV after the agreement was reached:
“If we truly seek justice [for Khamenei], then that justice will be achieved through the liberation of Jerusalem…”
“We must uphold that honor, remain committed to that vision, and carry out that mission.”
Netanyahu has informed Trump that Israel rejects the provision in the deal requiring an immediate and permanent end to the war in Lebanon, telling the president Israel does not consider itself bound by it.
CNN.