Iran Nuclear Deal Signals Possible Thawing In Relations With U.S.

csmonitor.com:

Washington - The tentative agreement reached in Vienna on Wednesday to substantially reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium raises a tantalizing question: After 30 years of hostility, could this be the beginning of a thaw in US-Iranian relations?

Read the whole story: csmonitor.com

Comments

[Shadow08]

"Where there's life, there's hope."

[CoronaDischarge]

Until actual action replaces the words, I think we should not necessarily trust a thing about it. But it is a first step. And any journey always begins with one.

Will the NeoCons now start lobbying to give Bush a Nobel Prize because it was his foreign policy that led them to negotiate with Obama and the West? Nothing would surprise.

[eileenflemingWAWA]

On April 5, 2009, President Obama stated:

"As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act...Human destiny will be what we make of it…Words must mean something."

In 1987, Israel imprisoned Mordechai Vanunu for telling the world the truth about their still un-inspected WMD facility, he wrote:

"The passive acceptance and complacency with regard to the existence of nuclear weapons anywhere on earth is the disease of society today…no government, not even the most democratic, can force us to live under this threat. No state in the world can offer any kind of security against this menace of a nuclear holocaust, or guarantee to prevent it.

"This issue should unite us all, because that is our real enemy…Any country, which manufactures and stocks nuclear weapons, is first of all endangering its own citizens. This is why the citizens must confront their government and warn it that it has no right to expose them to this danger.

"Indeed, when governments develop nuclear weapons without the consent of their citizens - and this is true in most cases - they are violating the basic rights of their citizens, the basic right not to live under constant threat of annihilation.

"Is any government qualified and authorized to produce such weapons?"-

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1426&Itemid=224

[TheLonelyGod]

Psst, this thread is about Iran and the US. Please try staying on topic.

[ray01]

lonelygod...funny post!

[eileenflemingWAWA]

Everything is connected and when talking nukes and the Middle East and all roads lead to Jerusalem!

"At the start of the latest round [of the draft agreement], Iran suddenly objected to the French role and called them untrustworthy."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1021/p06s14-woeu.html

In 2005, Vanunu told me:

"The French were responsible for the actual building of the Dimona.

"The Germans gave the money; they were feeling guilty for the Holocaust, and tried to pay their way out. Everything inside was written in French, when I was there, almost twenty years ago.

"President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons.

"Prime Minister Ben Guirion said, ‘The nuclear reactor is only for peace.’

"When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.

"Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year."

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1442&Itemid=224

[ezeflyer]

Iran is a beautiful country with lots of history. Like Turkey, it could become a tourist attraction once we were on friendly terms. "Travel is the best antidote to bigotry".

[KIVPossum]

Would love to visit it. When we crossed the 'Stans by train last year we had to stop in Uzbekistan because I didn't have a visa. Wish I'd got one so we could have taken it on into Terhan.

[Durango]

And by all accounts it's people are very friendly.

Particularly to Americans.

Just because it's government is jerks doesn't mean its people are.

[PlaceboStudman]

Its way too early to read anything into this deal.

Let's see how the deal is carried out before judging

[mcantwell]

True enough.

[Durango]

The United States needs to engage the government of Iran to reduce tensions.

Any government.

The number one thing the West can do to loosen the Conservatives grip on power is to reduce any threats. Ahmedinijad will use foreign interference for domestic political purposes.

If tensions are reduced the claims of foreign interference in Iranian politics become an absurd rationalization for a dictatorship.

In addition, there are many many areas where US and Iranian intersts intersect. Particularly Iraq and Afghanistan.

If the US wants an orderly withdrawal from Iraq Iranians can help. If the US wants to fight the Taliban in Afghnainistan, or Pakistan, the Iranians are stategically located.

The progress being made on the nuclear front shows the wisdom of the President and Secretary of State.

[Mollabaji]

Your comments make sense but I wouldn't give Hillary any credit. She is kept outside of important foreign policy decision-making. Credit is due the President who presides and directs his team.

I am also looking forward for a tour of Iran soon, the center of a great civilization and culture.

[Durango]

Hillary is the Secretary of State.

Of course she is in the loop. If she wasn't, she would not be Secretary of State. She would resign.