Yesterday, thirteen Senate Democrats joined thirteen Republicans and began circulating a new Iran sanctions bill with the potential to derail the Iran nuclear talks. This action came in spite of requests from the White House that Senators hold off on any new Iran legislation while the nuclear talks are in progress. I'm ashamed to say that New Jersey's own senior senator. Robert Menendez, is one of the leading supporters of the proposal and introduced it with Republican Mark Kirk.
These thirteen Democrats should know better. They have put themselves in the camp of conservative hardliners in Iran and the Netanyahu government in Israel - about the only other people on the planet against the historic interim agreement achieved by the G3+3 with Iran just last month.
The influence of the lobbying group AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), strong supporters of the right-wing Netanyahu, is all over this. Many, if not most, of the Senators pushing the legislation have received significant contributions from pro-Israel groups, who are heavily influenced by AIPAC. Menendez received more than $340,000 in campaign contributions in the six-year period ending December 31, 2012. Mark Kirk, the leading Republican proponent of the current legislation, received more than $925,000. All told, the 26 Senators received nearly $5,000,000 from pro- Israel groups. [maplight.org]
The proposed bill sets strong, and, likely illegal, conditions for a final agreement. "Among those conditions is a provision that only allows Obama to waive new sanctions, even after a final deal has been struck, if that deal bars Iran from enriching any new uranium whatsoever." [Daily Kos quoting Foreignpolicy.com, Dec.19] As a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes such as energy and medicine. Denying them this right to the peaceful use of nuclear power is a clear violation of the meaning of the treaty. This is especially specious when we consider that Israel is a non-signatory to the NNPT and has 80 nuclear weapons sitting 1000 km or so from Iran's borders. This condition all but guarantees that no lasting détente will ever be reached with Iran.
But that isn't the worst part of this bill. The bill includes a non-binding provision that states that if Israel takes "military action in legitimate self-defense against Iran's nuclear weapons program", the United States should support it. Since when does the United States outsource its military and foreign policy to a foreign power?
As Andrew Sullivan writes on The Dish website:
As usual, English is the first casualty in propaganda. Any act of “self-defense” against a mere “program” is not an act of legitimate self-defense. In international law, you are allowed to defend yourself if attacked; you do not have a right to attack another country just because you don’t like one of their military programs (which the Iranian regime has, in any case, sworn it would never use). That would be a license to shred international law and any concept of just warfare. For the US Senate to proactively bless future aggressive military action by a foreign government when it is not justified by self-defense is an appalling new low in the Israeli government’s grip on the US Congress.
If the Senate goes ahead and approves the bill when it comes to the floor next year, President Obama will have no choice but to veto it. If he does not, he should hand back his Nobel Peace Prize. And the Senate should congratulate themselves for caving in to AIPAC and taking us all a step closer to war.
Other Notes
Being pro-Israel does not mean being anti-Iran diplomacy. Americans for Peace Now is a Jewish-American organization that supports the two-state solution and works for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. They recently circulated a petition asking Congress to allow time for the nuclear talks with Iran to succeed. It's a shame that this group of peace activists doesn't have the influence of AIPAC on potential donors.
Update
This afternoon, Americans for Peace Now updated its petition. You can sign the petition here and send it to your Senators.
Links
Link to Wikipedia entry on Americans for Peace Now
Link to Wikipedia entry on AIPAC
Correction
An earlier version of this post indicated that Charles Schumer of New York introduced the bill with Mark Kirk of Illinois. While Schumer was one of the 26 co-sponsors, it was Sen. Menendez, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair, that led the Democrats supporting the bill.
Showing posts with label Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. Show all posts
Friday, December 20, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
A Diplomatic Victory
The G3+3 have reached an interim six-month agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. This is the best news on foreign relations that we have had for a long time. Let's hope the war-mongers, neocons, lobby-influenced Congressmen, and Benjamin Netanyahu don't manage to find a way to scuttle it before the next stage. Even as this past weekend's negotiations were getting underway, Senators, including Democrats, were lining up to impose additional sanctions on Iran. Pro-Israel groups, mainly AIPAC, contributed no less than $12.5 million to congressional candidates during the period from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012 - putting them solidly among the top special interest group lobbies in the country. Nevertheless, the historic agreement, interim though it may be, was made and initial indications from Congress are that they will allow time to see if the agreement will work.
As Reuters reported on Sunday November 24: "Iran and six world powers clinched a deal on Sunday curbing the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for initial sanctions relief, signalling the start of a game-changing rapprochement that would reduce the risk of a wider Middle East war. Aimed at easing a long festering standoff, the interim pact between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia won the critical endorsement of Iranian clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...The agreement, which halts Iran's most sensitive nuclear activity, its higher-grade enrichment of uranium, was tailored as a package of confidence-building steps towards reducing decades of tension and ultimately creating a more stable, secure Middle East." The negotiators noted that this was an important first step, that "the accord created time and space for follow-up talks on a comprehensive solution to the dispute". Iranian Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Mohammed Javed Zarif said "in an interview broadcast on state television that Iran would move quickly to start implementing the agreement and it was ready to begin talks on a final accord."
Some US allies in the Middle East - particularly Saudi Arabia and Israel - are not happy with the détente in US-Iranian relations. Netanyahu went so far as to call the negotiated agreement a "historic blunder." To which should be said that Saudi Arabia and Israel should have no fears. Just because we are lessening the chances of war in the Middle East doesn't mean they are no longer our allies. The amount of military aid and sales to these countries is staggering. Israel receives direct US military aid - averaging 1.8 billion dollars annually since 1987 and increasing to 2.4 billion/year in 2008. Saudi Arabia purchases billions of dollars of military equipment from the American arms industry. With a more peaceful Middle East, perhaps there would not be a need for these expenditures.
Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. As such, it has the right to develop its nuclear industry for peaceful purposes. It also has the obligation to allow periodic inspections. As noted in a Washington Post article from August 2012, "IAEA inspectors are regularly in Iran, but the core of the current dispute is that Tehran is not letting them have unfettered access to all of the country’s nuclear installations." Apparently that has changed with the agreement reached this weekend.
Israel is not a signatory to the treaty and not subject to inspections of its nuclear facilities. It is estimated that Israel has at least 80 nuclear weapons, although they have never admitted it publicly. The last person to disclose the Israeli nuclear program, nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, "was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Italy, taken home to trial, convicted and served 18 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement." [Washington Post]
Maybe it's too much to hope for but a totally nuclear free Middle East would be a good thing. And a totally nuclear free world would be even better. That would give us all something to be truly thankful for.
As Reuters reported on Sunday November 24: "Iran and six world powers clinched a deal on Sunday curbing the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for initial sanctions relief, signalling the start of a game-changing rapprochement that would reduce the risk of a wider Middle East war. Aimed at easing a long festering standoff, the interim pact between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia won the critical endorsement of Iranian clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...The agreement, which halts Iran's most sensitive nuclear activity, its higher-grade enrichment of uranium, was tailored as a package of confidence-building steps towards reducing decades of tension and ultimately creating a more stable, secure Middle East." The negotiators noted that this was an important first step, that "the accord created time and space for follow-up talks on a comprehensive solution to the dispute". Iranian Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Mohammed Javed Zarif said "in an interview broadcast on state television that Iran would move quickly to start implementing the agreement and it was ready to begin talks on a final accord."
Some US allies in the Middle East - particularly Saudi Arabia and Israel - are not happy with the détente in US-Iranian relations. Netanyahu went so far as to call the negotiated agreement a "historic blunder." To which should be said that Saudi Arabia and Israel should have no fears. Just because we are lessening the chances of war in the Middle East doesn't mean they are no longer our allies. The amount of military aid and sales to these countries is staggering. Israel receives direct US military aid - averaging 1.8 billion dollars annually since 1987 and increasing to 2.4 billion/year in 2008. Saudi Arabia purchases billions of dollars of military equipment from the American arms industry. With a more peaceful Middle East, perhaps there would not be a need for these expenditures.
Israel is not a signatory to the treaty and not subject to inspections of its nuclear facilities. It is estimated that Israel has at least 80 nuclear weapons, although they have never admitted it publicly. The last person to disclose the Israeli nuclear program, nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, "was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Italy, taken home to trial, convicted and served 18 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement." [Washington Post]
Maybe it's too much to hope for but a totally nuclear free Middle East would be a good thing. And a totally nuclear free world would be even better. That would give us all something to be truly thankful for.
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Happy Thanksgiving! The Left Bank Café will be back after the Thanksgiving holidays.
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