Win Without War & Basel Peace Office & Al-Akhbar – 2018-05-06 00:07:03
http://act.winwithoutwar.org/sign/tell-congress-speak-save-iran-deal/
ACTION ALERT: Save the Iran Deal
Win Without War
(May 5, 2018) — Donald Trump and his war-hungry cabinet are about to kill the Iran deal. And he just got some major help. Tell Congress to step in now to prevent war with Iran.
Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a bizarre speech railing against the Iran deal. Every out-of-date point he dredged up was just more evidence that the Iran deal is working, plain and simple. But the facts didn’t matter for Netanyahu’s audience of one: Donald Trump.
Next week, Trump will face his own self-imposed deadline to extend — or scuttle — the Iran deal. And Netanyahu’s speech is just the latest false pretext Trump is piling up to help him destroy the historic deal.
In 2003, the Bush administration built a smokescreen of lies just like this to justify their invasion of Iraq. By the time those lies got exposed, it was too late to stop one of the most disastrous foreign policy decisions in American history. We can’t let the Iraq War happen again.
ACTION: We’ve got to get Congress to call out Trump’s avalanche of anti-Iran deal lies before before he plunges us into a repeat of the Iraq War. Tell Congress to speak up immediately.
Make no mistake: the Iran deal is one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 21st century. It showed how diplomacy works to solve our most complicated global problems. Even deal skeptics like Trump’s own Secretary of Defense James Mattis agree that we must stick with the agreement.
But Trump and his new war cabinet are in a headlong dash to destroy the deal instead.
Mike Pompeo hasn’t even been Secretary of State for a week, and already, he’s spouting anti-Iran deal nonsense that sound like it’s come straight from Trump’s other new war cabinet adviser, John “Bomb Iran” Bolton. And that was before Netanyahu’s speech yesterday gave us horrible flashbacks to 2003.
On May 12, Donald Trump will face his own self-imposed deadline to extend — or scuttle — the Iran deal. He’s got a mega-Iran-hawk war cabinet of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo whispering in his ear. And he just got major help from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Trump is almost certainly going to scrap the Iran deal next Saturday. And if we don’t stop him, that could be the first domino in a chain that leads straight to war. Now is the moment to act. Please, add your name and tell Congress to debunk Trump’s lies and derail his path to a devastating war with Iran before it’s too late.
THE LETTER
To: The United States Congress
The Iran deal is working. If President Trump refuses to extend this deal, he will set us on an incredibly dangerous path risking a devastating war with Iran.
Your public support of the Iran deal is critical to prevent this dangerous scenario. Please speak up immediately to debunk false anti-Iran deal claims that will make it easier for President Trump to destroy this critical deal.
Thank you for working for peace,
Stephen, Erica, Ben, and the Win Without War team
Help Save the Iran Nuclear Deal for Peace and Nonproliferation
http://act.winwithoutwar.org/sign/tell-congress-speak-save-iran-deal/”>Basel Peace Office
(May 4, 2018) — Members of the Abolition 2000 global network to eliminate nuclear weapons, meeting in Geneva for their Annual General Meeting over the weekend, call on peace and disarmament activists to help save the Iran Nuclear Deal – Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under the deal, Iran has agreed to verified control of its nuclear energy program to ensure that it is not possible to divert technology or materials to make a nuclear bomb. In exchange, Iran gets relief from some of the international sanctions that had been imposed on them.
President Trump has called for a renegotiated deal, adding additional demands on Iran (such as on their missile program) and for the ‘sunset’ clause to be revoked. Such additional demands would likely lead to Iran leaving the deal.
President Trump has announced that if other partners to the deal – UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union – do not agree to his demands by May 12, he will not re-certify the deal, and the US will return to aggressive sanctions and the possibility of military attack against Iran.
Abolition 2000 members at the AGM call on activists around the world to publicly support the deal by organizing vigils or delegation visits to US embassies in your country before May 12.
If you cannot vigil at a US embassy, then send them a letter expressing your concern. Please invite media to these events, or send the media copies of your letters to the US embassies. And please send us copies of your letters, press releases and photos of your actions. We can forward these to US administration officials.
Thank you
Basel Peace Office
a proud member of Abolition 2000
40 Years of Nuclear Quotes
Al-Akhbar
“[The] introduction of nuclear power will both provide for the growing needs of Iran’s economy and free remaining oil reserves for export or conversion to petrochemicals.”
— US National Security Decision Memorandum 292 (1975)
“[Iran could develop nuclear weapons within] three to five years [and must be stopped through] an international front headed by the US.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (1992)
“[T]he best estimates at this time place Iran between three and five years away from possessing the prerequisites required for the independent production of nuclear weapons.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (1995)
“We don’t need atomic bombs, and based on our religious teaching, we will not pursue them . . . but at the same time, we want to be strong, and being strong means having knowledge and technology.”
— Iran President Mohammed Khatami (2003)
“We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran, whose policies are directed at developing a Middle East that would be 180 degrees different from the Middle East that we would like to see develop . . . “
— US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (2006)
“There is no sign that Iran’s leaders have ordered up a bomb.”
— US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2009)
“Despite years of covert operations inside Iran, extensive satellite imagery, and the recruitment of many Iranian intelligence assets, the United States and its allies, including Israel, have been unable to find irrefutable evidence . . . .”
— Seymour Hersh (2011)
“We believe that using nuclear weapons is haraam and prohibited and that it is everybody’s duty to make efforts to protect humanity against this great disaster.”
— Ayatollah Ali Kahamenei (2012)
“[Iran is] four to eight weeks away [from a nuclear bomb].”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (2012)
Timeline of the /Iran Bomb’
Al-Akhbar (September 25, 2012)
The Shah Years
* 1957: The US and Iran sign a civil nuclear co-operation agreement under the US Atoms for Peace program.
* 1960: A small research nuclear reactor is purchased by Iran from the US and it becomes active seven years later.
* 1968: Iran signs and ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
* 1970: Negotiations begin between Iran and the US, France, and West Germany over plans to develop 20 nuclear reactors and possibly aid with a rudimentary nuclear weapons program.
* 1974: “[One day] sooner than is believe, [Iran would be] in possession of a nuclear bomb.” Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi tells a French news agency.
* 1975-76: The administration of Gerald Ford backs Iran’s nuclear plans. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Henry Kissenger lobby in support of this policy.
* 1978: Iran and US sign on to a nuclear agreement. Iran agrees to safeguards beyond NPT requirements, while the US granted Iran “most favored nation” status for reprocessing nuclear fuel.
Post Revolution Years
* 1979: The revolution erupts and the unpopular shah is ousted. All ties along the nuclear front between Iran and Western countries are severely downgraded or out-rightly terminated. The new Iranian leadership decides to scrap the nuclear program over religious grounds.
* 1980: Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invades Iran, with support from the Arab Gulf and the Americans, sparking off an eight-year war between the two.
* 1982: Iran reconsiders its ban on the nuclear program.
* 1984: British defense magazine Jane’s Defense Weekly becomes the first publication in the West to claim that Iran was “engaged in the production of an atomic bomb, likely to be ready within two years.” This was followed by US Senator Alan Cranston’s announcement that Iran was expected to have nuclear weapons as early as 1991.
* 1988: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini drafts a letter contemplating a militarized nuclear program. He is influenced by Iraq’s use of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war.
* 1992: Benjamin Netanyahu expresses the belief that Iran could develop nuclear weapons within “three to five years” and therefore must be stopped through “an international front headed by the US.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres reiterates this position but pushes the clock to 1999. “Iran is the greatest threat [to peace] and greatest problem in the Middle East . . . because it seeks the nuclear option while holding a highly dangerous stance of extreme religious militantism,” Peres said.
Similarly, US House Republican Research Committee claims that there was a “98 percent certainty that Iran had already had all (or virtually all) of the components required for two or three operational nuclear weapons.”
* 1995: Benjamin Netanyahu declares in his book, Fighting Terrorism, that “the best estimates at this time place Iran between three and five years away from possessing the prerequisites required for the independent production of nuclear weapons.”
* 1996: Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud Barak tells members of the UN Security Council that Iran would be able to produce nuclear weapons within eight years.”
* 1998: Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reported to Congress that Iran could build an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear or a biological payload that could hit the US within five years.
* 2002: US President George W. Bush places Iran as part of the “axis of evil”.
* 2003: Iran allows the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit its nuclear facilities for the first time. While accusing Iran of a “pattern of concealment,” the IAEA does not that they had found “no evidence” that Iran was attempting to build an atomic bomb.
After IAEA visitations, Iran President Mohammed Khatami says in a speech, “We don’t need atomic bombs, and based on our religious teaching, we will not pursue them . . . but at the same time, we want to be strong, and being strong means having knowledge and technology.”
Britain, France, and Germany initiate dialogue with Iran and the Paris Agreement is drafted. Iran agrees to temporary suspend its program pending the progress of negotiations.
* 2004: Secretary of State Colin Powell declares that there is information that Iran was trying to wed its nuclear program with its missile development project.
* 2005: The US presents “alleged studies” to support Powell’s allegations. IAEA, other international experts, and Iran doubt the authenticity of these documents.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei issues a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons during a meeting with the IAEA Board of Governors in Geneva.
* 2006: Iran’s suspension of its program ends. In response, the UN Security Council passes first rounds of sanctions, and passes further sanctions between this year and until 2010.
* 2007: The US National Intelligence Estimate releases its report on Iran. It states with “high confidence” that Iran had given up any nuclear weapons effort in 2003.
* 2009: Various Israeli political and military officials places the timetable for an Iranian bomb between 2012-2014.
A US Senate Foreign Relations Committee reports states: “There is no sign that Iran’s leaders have ordered up a bomb.”
* 2010: Brazil and Turkey broker a deal with Iran in regards to swapping nuclear fuel abroad. West does not support the deal and it collapses.
* 2010-2011: Iran experiences further economic sanctions, in addition to cyber-attacks and assassination operations of Iranian scientists.
Seymour Hersh, journalist at the New Yorker, notes:
“Despite years of covert operations inside Iran, extensive satellite imagery, and the recruitment of many Iranian intelligence assets, the United States and its allies, including Israel, have been unable to find irrefutable evidence of an ongoing hidden nuclear-weapons program in Iran, according to intelligence and diplomatic officials here and abroad.”
* 2011: IAEA under the new leadership of Yukia Amano reverses the agency’s position on Iran, suddenly asserting that the Islamic republic had been working on weapons-related activities for years.
Sources for timeline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_nuclear_program_of_Iran
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14542438
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1108/Imminent-Iran-nucle . . .
http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-nuclear-activities
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=us_plans_to_use_mili . . .
http://www.salon.com/2010/12/05/israeli_predictions_iranian_nukes/
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