Renee Parsons
As a massive regional war rages throughout the Middle East, US President Donald Trump’s fatal decision to attack Iran continues to provide a horrific war narrative in partnership with Israel’s world famous war criminal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That partnership nurtured, after his seventh visit to the once-sacrosanct Oval Office, initiated the second unprovoked, unconstitutional attack on Iran – this latest attack on February 28th.
After weeks of indecision and the façade of diplomatic negotiations, originally dubbed Operation Epic Fury (aka Epstein Fury), Trump failed to conduct a constitutional briefing to the US Congress; is in violation of the UN Charter and international law as he failed to inform the American public about why he decided to wage another illegal, premeditated war against Iran and why those negotiations failed.
Trump’s delay was possibly due to his own doubts about whether he would politically survive the mid term election or his own weak character knowing he had been hustled into another unprovoked aggression by Israel’s demonic love of war, death and destruction.
That attack was originally hyped as a short term conflict to assuage the anti-war American public as if Iran would easily collapse into the arms of the most powerful, the biggest and the best military in the whole wide world.
Even before the conflict became a full fledged war, when it became apparent that Trump was willing to ‘negotiate’ with the Iranians, the President was frequently flipping his objective – were negotiations to be focused on Iran’s use of nuclear energy or its enrichment of uranium or was it the ballistic missile threat or perhaps it was merely ‘regime change’ as if the US had the right to decide any other nation’s ‘regime’.
From the beginning, Trump’s selected negotiators were lacking professional experience to conduct high profile negotiations with Trump conveniently appointing his son in law Jared Kushner and a NYC crony Steve Witkoff, both of whom are Zionists with real estate backgrounds and active relationships with Israel. Neither had any experience in diplomacy or any familiarity with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
Scrutinizing the negotiating process reveals that when US and Iran representatives met in an attempt to find common ground and resolve their differences, the ‘negotiations’ quickly deteriorated into little more than a stalling process creating a political theatre to enhance President Trump’s image in his quest for peace – an alleged quest that was doomed from the start.
The negotiations could have been productive if Trump had appointed professional diplomats with some experience dealing with high level war-and-peace questions or politically sensitive issues as well as an openminded approach truly seeking peace would have been helpful.
“A deal was at our reach, and we left Geneva happily with the understanding that we can reach a deal next time we meet,” Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated in anticipation that Iran would “focus on discussions that accept enrichment inside Iran while building trust that enrichment is and will stay for peaceful purposes.”
If there is a question of how/why the ‘negotiations’ failed to resolve the impending conflict regarding Iran’s use of nuclear energy, there is a simple ominous answer.
What were the negotiators to negotiate if the President had not been able to settle on one single basis for war with Iran, if there was no real understanding of the nature of their negotiation. In the final analysis, it makes little difference since there was no one real objective identified that would forestall the attacks.
The attacks were always on the agenda; the negotiations were meant to impress the gullible Americans that there was a serious attempt to forestall an attack and that the US did its best but it was the fault of those damned Iranians who would not cooperate.
The uncertainty about exactly what was being negotiated confirms that the PR around the negotiations was always a fraud. Both Witkoff/Kushner were ‘playing with’ Iran since there was no agreement on any one topic that would have stopped an impending attack.
After their first ‘negotiation’ session, Witkoff reported with an incredulous tone that Iran declared they had an “inalienable right to enrich all their nuclear fuel. That’s how they opened up,” Witkoff complained. “We, of course, responded that the president feels we have the inalienable right to stop you, dead in your tracks.” Witkoff continued …”which told us at that very moment that they had no notion of doing anything other than retaining enrichment for the purpose of weaponizing“. The dye was already cast.
Clearly, Witkoff was offended by Iranian use of the “inalienable right” phrase. As an uninformed mediator, Witkoff had not understood that the Iranians were absolutely correct in their assertion. The Iranians did have an ‘inalienable right’ as spelled out in Article IV of the NPT.
However, the Witkoff Kushner team maintained their antagonistic view with no clue about the NPT or that Article IV existed but that the Iranians were totally correct in their assertion and that Article IV that was very clear and specific to the point.
After the fact, Omani foreign minister Badr Alblusaidi who participated in the negotiations as a mediator, reiterated on Face the Nation that “Iran agreed it will “never, ever” have nuclear material to create a bomb. Iran agreed too full and comprehensive verification by the IAEA”.
Hours before President Trump announced his decision to bomb Iran, Alblusaidi went public to inform the American people that “a peace deal is within our reach.” By that time, Trump was intent on war.
Instead, IF Trump’s hand picked negotiators had been familiar with Article IV ‘s reference to an inalienable right as identified in the NPT as the Iranian negotiators had attempted to include in their arbitration, conceivably there could have been a peaceful outcome.
IF Witkoff and Kushner had a better understanding of their role as negotiators, had a better understanding of what the Iranians were trying to convey about the NPT’s requirements and its allowance for reprocessing of uranium for peaceful purposes, this disastrous deadly conflict could have been avoided.
Article IV of the NPT states: “Nothing in this treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the parties to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination” and further that “all Parties have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.”
Article IV also provides for the transfer of nuclear technology and materials to NPT Parties for peaceful purposes in the development of civilian nuclear energy programs, subject to IAEA safeguards to demonstrate that their nuclear programs are not being used for the development of nuclear weapons.
Specifically Article IV of the NPT acknowledges the right of all Parties to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as well as permits the enrichment of uranium for peaceful purposes.
In 1968 both Iran and Israel were parties to the NPT as Iran has always been agreeable to IAEA inspections.
initially agreeing to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in theory in 1968, the nation of Israel never signed or ratified the NPT as adopted; Israel remains the only nation in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons and its refusal to adhere to the IAEA inspections. Israel has denied the existence of the Dimona Nuclear plant for decades, is the only UN member not a party to the NPT as it is also not a party to the Biological Weapons Convention or the Chemical Weapons Convention and has never participated in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone.
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“To our steadfast partner, Israel. Your mission is being executed with unmatched skill and iron determination. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with such a capable ally, is a true force multiplier and a breath of fresh air. We salute your courage and your contribution.” US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth
Renee Parsons has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist with Friends of the Earth and a staff member in the US House of Representative in Washington, DC. Before its demise, she was also a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and President of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter.