Posted on 11/09/2012 1:15:30 PM PST by drewh
After winning a second White House term, US President Barack Hussein Obama aims to start direct, fast-track nuclear talks with Tehran as soon as December, even before his January swearing-in, on the assumption that Iran’s window of opportunity is very narrow – just three months, Washington sources disclose.
White House go-betweens with the office of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warn that Iran’s campaign for the June 14 presidential election gets going in March.
After then, it is estimated in Washington, that Khamenei, whose ill health keeps his working-day short, will be fully absorbed in a struggle to purge Iran’s political hierarchy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his clique.
But Tehran would prefer nuclear diplomacy to be delayed for eight months until after that election.
“We waited for the US election campaign to be over, so why shouldn’t the Americans wait for ours?” a senior Iranian official asked rhetorically.
For now, the supreme leader is looking for a suitable candidate for the presidency.
This time, the supreme leader is not expected to make the mistake of choosing a charismatic, ambitious and competent figure like Ahmadinejad, but rather one who is satisfied with acting as a representative titular figure and play second fiddle to Khamenei whose bureau will administer the executive branch of government.
The supreme leader is believed in Washington to be weighing another alternative: having parliament abolish the post of president and transferring its powers to the new post of prime minister, who would be chosen from among the 290 Majlis lawmakers.
Speaker Ali Larijani and his brother, head of the judiciary Sadeq Larijani, have in the past year performed the spadework of sidelining Ahmadinejad’s parliamentary faction.
Ali Larijani himself is a front-runner for the job of Revolutionary Iran’s first prime minister.
The view in Washington today is that if nuclear talks do start in December and roll on into March, Khamenei will be compelled to cut the process short to escape potential accusations led by Ahmadinejad that he is handing to America concessions excessive enough to stall Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
The supreme leader can’t afford to have the Iran’s military establishment, the Revolutionary Guards and the street turn against him on this issue.
But in the last few days, Tehran appears to have taken a large step back from direct negotiations with Washington in principle.
Just hours after Obama’s election victory was announced on Nov. 7, the official Iranian news agency quoted Sadeq Larijani as condemning US sanctions as “crimes against the Iranian people.”
He said relations with America “cannot be possible overnight” and the US president should not expect rapid new negotiations with Tehran.
“Americans should not think they can hold our nation to ransom by coming to the negotiating table,” was the Iranian judiciary head’s parting shot for Obama. The gap between Washington and Tehran is as wide as ever: Obama wants the talks to last no more than three months and end in an agreed settlement of the nuclear dispute, whereas the ayatollah prefers a low-key process to be dragged out past the eight month-month period while also gaining more time for Iran’s nuclear program to race forward.
This tactic would additionally help Tehran erase yet another Israeli red line, the one set by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his UN September speech when he said that the spring or early summer of 2013 would be the critical date for Israel to act
Israel acts most promptly and firmly when it knows it’s on its own.
So the attack on the drone was kind of early big “Howdy!” to get the meetings off on the right foot.
Sounds like another 'arab spring'/Muslim Brotherhood takeover
Since 0bama stole the election a lot of conservatives have been rightfully concerned about the future of America. Imagine how Israel feels.
Hussein intends to use this “crisis” as an opportunity to sell-out our ally Israel.
For accuracy's sake it should say:
Obama Aims To Start (Direct, Fast Track) Nuclear Talks Surrender Negotiations With Iran Next Month
Do they know that yet?
My guess: It will be like Jimmy Carter in NK. He’ll ask the Iranians to buy him four years, and tone down the rhetoric while they work. In exchange he’ll lift all sanctions and give a Teheran speech lamenting the big misunderstanding between our great Islamic nations.
/S
TALKS?
Obama you asswad Iran wants you and every America DEAD! How be stupid can you be? Sorry that was a trick question. We already know you are very stupid..........
This is exactly what Clinton and Albright did. Shortly after W. took office it was “discovered” the North Koreans had been running their program uninterrupted.
Maybe I meant Clinton. The NKs have been given oil and food multiple times for promises of civilized behavior that never materialized. Not just by us, either... they sucker the SKs as well.
Hence:
Israel Needs A Preemptive Nuclear Strike Against Iran
...we will, if necessary, do whatever it takes to ensure our survival, including a preemptive nuclear strike.
...if Israel is faced between an Iran nuclear bomb, or having to launch a preemptive nuclear strike to prevent that eventuality, it will opt for the latter.
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/iranisraelnuclearariel3890624.html
New moon Tuesday...
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Hmm, thats strange, just before the election, obama claimed iran was YEARS away, not months.
Flippin liars will get us all killed before its over.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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