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Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) is preparing to reintroduce legislation that would implement “crippling sanctions” on Iran following the recent announcement of a framework nuclear deal quick rejected by leaders in Tehran. Kirk, one of Congress’ chief proponents of new sanctions, told the Washington Post that Iranian intransigence would force Congress to seek greater sanctions. “It’s increasingly obvious that Iran has not agreed to a framework for a final nuclear deal, especially with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his minions continuing to reject the terms in the U.S. factsheet on the framework. It looks like we’re on track either...

President Obama and Iran’s supreme leader appear to think they have negotiated different nuclear deals based on their public comments, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Friday. Graham, a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said the different public accounts of a framework deal suggest Obama has rushed into a tentative agreement with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. “The Ayatollah and President Obama appear to be talking about two separate agreements and unfortunately, I can’t say I’m surprised,” Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “President Obama wants a deal way too badly, and his...

The demand by Iran’s leaders for the immediate lifting of all sanctions on the day a deal on its nuclear program takes effect represents proof that the US-led powers are adopting an unworkable approach to thwarting Iran’s push to the bomb, Israeli sources said Friday. A day after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ail Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani insisted that there would be no deal unless sanctions were lifted on the day it went into effect — contradicting what the US says were understandings reached in a framework agreement last week in Lausanne — Channel 2 News said Israel regards the...

QUESTION: I don’t – so you don’t think – you reject the Kissinger-Shultz line that political restraint and the nuclear issue should be linked? MS HARF: What kind of political restraint do you think they’re referring to? QUESTION: Well, this is what they’re talking about. They’re – I believe that they’re talking about Iran’s destabilizing role in places like Syria and places like Lebanon and places like Yemen -- MS HARF: Right. So we have always said that once you start linking the nuclear issue, which is complicated enough on its own, with all these other issues, it’s really hard...

State Dept Downplays Kissinger/Schultz Op-Ed as Just 'A Lot of Big Words and Big Thoughts' (April 8, 2015)

Lights went out at the State Department, White House, Capitol and many other places in Washington, DC, in a puzzling series of power outages. Terrorism is not suspected, officials say.

Many dismayed by Obama’s lack of understanding of Gulf politics Dubai: Reactions among Gulf citizens to President Barack Obama’s comments on the region were disparate, covering the gamut between derogatory and laudatory, but shock and dismay were the strongest emotions. Obama in an interview said that Gulf countries had legitimate grievances about external threats menacing them, but insisted that the biggest threats they faced were “not from Iran” but from within. “They have some very real external threats, but they also have some internal threats — populations that, in some cases, are alienated, youth that are underemployed, an ideology that...

Rot set in when P5+1 stopped demanding Iran dismantle nuclear facilities, says Yuval Steinitz. But Lausanne framework doesn’t even halt Iran’s progress Israel’s minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, Yuval Steinitz, is at the forefront of his government’s very high-profile effort to expose perceived flaws and close loopholes in the world powers’ new framework nuclear deal with Iran. There’s just one problem, he says: There is no deal. In fact, there isn’t even a written framework. Asked for his overall assessment of a deal hailed by the US as “historic,” Steinitz responded with a sigh and the plaintive lament: “The...

No one saw this coming right?Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan categorically rejected as a “lie” a Guardian report alleging that Tehran has granted access to its military facilities under the recent framework agreement with the world powers. “No such agreement has been made; principally speaking, visit to military centers is among our redlines and no such visit will be accepted,” Gen. Dehqan stressed on Wednesday, rejecting “the report by foreign media outlets, such as the Guardian” as “untruthful allegations”… In relevant remarks on Monday, Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said the untruthfulness...

The White House on Wednesday took a shot at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by using a cartoon bomb to defend its nuclear deal with Iran. The bomb diagram attached to a White House tweet looked a lot like a chart used by Netanyahu during a 2012 speech to the United Nations General Assembly urging the U.S. and other world powers to set an ultimatum to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Using a marker, Netanyahu drew a red line near the top of the bomb. “At this late hour there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran...

Moshe Ya’alon is Israel’s defense minister. The framework concluded last week on Iran’s nuclear program was doomed to disagreement. Even the “fact sheets” issued by the United States, France and Iran — all parties to the talks — didn’t agree on the facts. Israel has made clear its grave concerns about the framework’s fundamental elements and omissions. The vast nuclear infrastructure to be left in Iran will give it an unacceptably short breakout time to building a bomb. Iran’s long-range ballistic missile program — a threat to Israel as well as the rest of the Middle East, Europe and the...

18:32 Watch PM reply to Obama comments in NPR interview Netanyahu’s Hebrew language response to Obama’s NPR interview from Tuesday. The transcript appears below the clip Israel shares the view that with the expiry of the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, Iran’s break-out time for acquiring nuclear bombs will be zero. This will be an inevitable result of the automatic removal of limitations on the nuclear program, which will enable Iran to reach industrial-grade capability in producing nuclear bombs. The alternative to this bad agreement is not a war, the alternative is a good agreement. This can be...

FARS agency quotes Zarif, Salehi telling MPs they’ll operate IR-8 centrifuges, a breach of US-published framework terms that would make a mockery of deal Iran will begin using its latest generation IR-8 centrifuges as soon as its nuclear deal with the world powers goes into effect, Iran’s foreign minister and nuclear chief told members of parliament on Tuesday, according to Iran’s semi-official FARS news agency. If accurate, the report makes a mockery of the world powers’ much-hailed framework agreement with Iran, since such a move clearly breaches the US-published terms of the deal, and would dramatically accelerate Iran’s potential progress...

Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski, no fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress last month, said Bibi’s trip to the Sunday shows yesterday would have been more powerful had he not already spent his political capital. “His criticism has lost credibility,” she said. “They were pounding this before they knew anything about [the proposed Iran nuclear deal].” Netanyahu appeared on three of the major political shows yesterday morning to argue against the deal, and faced questions over whether he was accusing President Barack Obama of negotiating in bad faith with respect to Israel’s security. “Does...

A day after US President Barack Obama attempted to soothe Israel's Iran fears, adviser Ben Rhodes told the trio of Israeli news stations that Iran would not be able to gain access to a nuclear bomb. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, insisted that there "significant limitations" on Tehran's nuclear program, which would prevent them producing nuclear weaponry. While the United States does not necessarily trust Iran, Rhodes continued, the deal contains "strict supervision," which will ensure the Islamist regime can't manufacture a nuclear bomb. Even ten or fifteen years from now, when a final deal is...

On CBS This Morning: Saturday, reporter Elizabeth Palmer did her best to channel the sentiments of Iran following the preliminary nuclear agreement between them and the United States. The CBS reporter proclaimed that “at Friday prayers there was the usual chant of death to America, but more habit than conviction. Palmer began her report by touting Iranian support for the nuclear deal as being “all about ending its isolation. After marathon negotiations, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived home a hero especially among the young who hope the new deal will bring their country in from the cold.” The CBS...

Arab intelligence agencies tell European countries that Irans military is ready to close Strait of Hormuz if nuclear talks fail. - Ch. 10

Speech by Bill Clinton on 21 October 1994 on how the world is a safer place based on the "good deal" with North Korea, preventing it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Nuclear deal "leaves the pre-eminent terrorist state of our time with a vast nuclear infrastructure," PM tells NBC. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his arguments against the Iran nuclear deal to the US public on Sunday, giving interviews on three Sunday morning news shows and saying he was not against any deal with Iran, just a “bad deal.” Netanyahu said on NBC's “Meet the Press,” that he was trying to “kill a bad deal.” He said to those calling it a “historic deal,” that it “could be a historically bad deal.” This, he added, is “because it leaves the preeminent...

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing more harm than good by his insistent efforts to turn the American public and lawmakers against President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, especially given his lack of alternative. “This can back backfire on him,” Feinstein said. “I wish that he would contain himself, because he has put out no real alternative. In his speech to the Congress — no real alternative. Since then — no real alternative.” Guest host Jim Acosta said Bibi’s alternative was tougher sanctions. “It depends...