02/02 Links Pt1: UN Watch report highlights anti-Israel bias at UNHRC; US all but admits nuclear deal has failed; London: Firebomb thrown near Golders Green synagogue

From Ian:

UN Watch report highlights anti-Israel bias at UN Human Rights Council

The watchdog organization UN Watch published its first-ever report on Monday detailing the strong anti-Israel claims made at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by various countries.

The release of the report comes amid the 46th session of the UNHRC, which is scheduled to take place on February 22 in Geneva and will run until March 23.

The 58-page report titled “Agenda Item 7: Country Claims & UN Watch Responses” focuses on how claims put forward against Israel by notorious human rights abuses, such as the Palestinian Authority, Syria, North Korea, and dozens of other council members that frequently accused Israel of various crimes and human rights violations.

Among the claims made against Israel at the UNHRC include Israel hindering the Palestinians in their fight against COVID-19, Israel occupying Palestinian land, Israel committing apartheid against the Palestinians, damaging holy sites, and the blockade of Gaza being illegal.

Under Agenda Item 7, Israel is the sole country discussed at the council, while all the other 193 countries in the world are addressed under Agenda Item 4. Likewise, the report notes that no special agenda items were filed on Iran, Syria, North Korea, and other prominent human rights abusing countries.

“Israel has become a convenient punching bag and scapegoat for non-democratic states, many of them members of the UNHRC such as Cuba, Pakistan, and Libya, to divert attention away from their own gross and systematic human rights abuses," said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer in response to the report.

At the same time, the report notes that all Western countries have refused to participate in the Item 7 debate, due to the claim it is biassed against Israel.

London: Firebomb thrown near Golders Green synagogue

A Molotov Cocktail was thrown at a synagogue in the Golders Green neighborhood of London Tuesday.

Police cordoned off the area around the Munks Beit Midrash after a suspicious individual was spotted at the site. Footage from the scene showed firefighters attempting to put out a small fire near the building.

Local councilor Alex Prager wrote on Twitter that "Golders Green Road is closed due to a security incident. Police and fire brigade on site. Appears to have involved a molotov cocktail next to a synagogue on The Riding."

Police stated that the incident is not believed to be related to terrorism.

Breaking 🚨 news out of London - Fire happening, molotov cocktail thrown near the Golders Green synagogue.

Men in the video can be heard asking "why did he wait all that time to throw that little bottle?"

More here: https://t.co/vcliU2wvkV pic.twitter.com/kfMTKfd3dr

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) February 2, 2021

Pakistan orders man acquitted in Pearl murder off death row and into safe house

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government “safe house.”

Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, will be under guard and will not be allowed to leave the safe house, but he will be able to have his wife and children visit him.

“It is not complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom,” said Sheikh’s father, Ahmad Saeed Sheikh, who attended the hearing.

The Pakistan government has been scrambling to keep Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order last Thursday upheld his acquittal in the death of Pearl, triggering outrage by Pearl’s family and the US administration.

In a final effort to overturn the acquittal, Pakistan’s government as well as the Pearl family filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, asking it to review the decision to exonerate Sheikh of Pearl’s murder. The family’s lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, however, said such a review had a slim chance of success because the same Supreme Court judges who ordered Sheikh’s acquittal sit on the review panel.

The US government has said that it would seek Sheikh’s extradition if his acquittal is upheld. Sheikh has been indicted in the United States on Pearl’s murder as well as in a 1994 kidnapping of an American citizen in Indian-ruled sector of the divided region of Kashmir. The American was eventually freed.

Biden breaks from predecessors by taking it slow on Israeli-Palestinian peace

Now it’s Biden’s turn.

But rather than falling into the ostensible honey-trap that allured his predecessors, the new US president has a different strategy. Instead of going for it all at once, the Biden administration prefers pushing incremental steps that can be taken by both parties while discouraging unilateral moves that would dissolve whatever confidence still remains between the sides.

The end goal is still the same, and Acting US Ambassador to the UN Richard Mills made that clear in the first line of his Tuesday address: “Under the new administration, the policy of the United States will be to support a mutually agreed two-state solution, one in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state.”

The Biden administration wasn’t just voicing support for the two-state solution, but in many ways has been doubling down on the concept, indicating that Trump had paid mere lip service to the idea, while allowing Israeli settlement construction to go unchecked in all parts of the West Bank for the past four years. Biden, on the other hand, has a long history of criticizing settlement construction and did so several times during the campaign.

And yet, Mills followed up that statement with a significant caveat, which was rarely used by previous administrations unwilling to take no for an answer: “US diplomatic engagement will begin from the premise that sustainable progress must be based on active consultation with both sides and that ultimate success requires the active consent of both sides,” he said.

“Unfortunately, as I think we’ve heard, the respective leaderships are far apart on final-status issues, Israeli and Palestinian politics are fraught, and trust between the two sides is at a nadir,” the US envoy continued.

The point though was to recognize reality, not excuse inaction.

“These realities do not relieve member states of the responsibility of trying to preserve the viability of a two-state solution. Nor should they distract from the imperative of improving conditions on the ground, particularly the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Mills said.

The messaging was nearly identical to what was used by Biden and his aides during the campaign.

“This isn’t 2009, it’s not 2014. The parties are far from a place where they’re ready to engage on negotiations or final status talks,” Biden’s eventual Secretary of State Antony Blinken told The Times of Israel during the campaign.

He foresaw a Biden administration initially taking a posture of “do no harm” by ensuring that “neither side takes additional unilateral steps that make the prospect of two states even more distant or closing it entirely.”

Hussein al Sheikh, head of the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs, today talked on the phone with Hady Amr, a senior official with the Biden administration.

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) February 1, 2021

Jpost Editorial: Israel's ties with Kosovo: What new opportunities await?

Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian-majority population of some 1.9 million are mostly Muslims, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after a NATO-led bombing campaign to curb a war triggered by years of repressive Serbian rule and ethnic cleansing.

It has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 98 of the 193 UN member states, but has not been accepted into the UN because of strong Russian and Chinese opposition to its membership.

Although Israel and Kosovo have not had diplomatic ties until now, the two countries have historically had good relations, and the Israeli government dispatched massive humanitarian aid to Kosovo during and after its 1998-99 war with Slobodan Milosevic’s regime.

There are some 80 Jewish families living in Kosovo today, according to Ruzhdi Shkodra, president of the BET Israel Jewish Community, with most of them living in the capital, Pristina, and three families living in the historic city of Prizen.

According to the Jewish Heritage Europe website, small numbers of Jews fleeing Europe arrived in what is known today as Kosovo in the Middle Ages, when the territory was part of Serbia, and, after 1455, the Ottoman Empire. They were joined by Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century. By the mid-18th century about 1,000 Jews lived in the territory, and as many as 1,750 on the eve of World War I.

It is our fervent hope that the normalization of relations between Israel and Muslim states mediated by the Trump administration will continue under the Biden administration. First there were last year’s Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, soon followed by deals with Sudan and Morocco, which have yet to be officially formalized.

Under Biden’s presidency, we are optimistic that sufficient progress can be made to get other Muslim and Arab states – especially Saudi Arabia – to join the increasing number of countries normalizing relations with Israel. This is the way to secure the best future for all people. It is in everyone’s interest.

Serbia ‘not happy’ with Israel’s recognition of Kosovo, says it will impact ties

Serbia’s foreign minister said Tuesday the government was “not happy” with Israel’s decision to recognize Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose statehood Belgrade denies and has waged a diplomatic battle to delegitimize.

The reaction came a day after Israel and Kosovo established diplomatic ties in what was a major victory for Pristina’s efforts to gain full global recognition of the independence it declared in 2008 following a war with Serbia in the 1990s.

Kosovo has since been recognized by much of the Western world, but its rejection by Serbia’s key allies Russia and China has locked it out of the United Nations. Until Monday, Israel was another key holdout on Belgrade’s side.

Israel and Kosovo formally established diplomatic ties this week, with the Muslim-majority territory also recognizing Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital — putting it at odds with the rest of the Islamic world.

“We have invested serious efforts in our relations with Israel in recent years and we are not happy with this decision,” Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic said Tuesday on public broadcaster RTS.

Israel’s move will “undoubtedly influence relations between Serbia and Israel,” he added.

Since establishing ties in 1991, the countries have maintained good relations with growing Israeli investment in the Balkan state.

Israel wants a 'land corridor of peace' with UAE to build on developing links

Israel wants to create a "corridor of peace" with the UAE to build on developing links, Israel's envoy has said.

Eitan Naeh, head of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said a trade corridor linking eastern Arabia and Israel could lead to great possibilities for trade and tourism.

Mr Naeh said Israel was interested in a land route that can take goods from the UAE to Israel in three days.

"It all has to be investigated," Mr Naeh told the state news agency Wam. "Business communities in Israel and the UAE are now looking into ways to increase trade. Each country brings its relative advantage. We have trade agreements with the West [US and European Union]. You are an opening to the East. So, it is a huge market," said the 57-year-old diplomat who had earlier served as the Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan and Turkey as well as the deputy head of mission at the embassy in London.

Links between both countries are developing rapidly since the Abraham Accord was signed in September last year.

The UAE will soon establish its embassy in Tel Aviv after Cabinet approval last month.

Dubai-Israel trade has already reached Dh1 billion ($272.3 million) in the five months between September 2020 to January 2021. Mr Naeh said about 130,000 Israeli tourists visited the UAE since the normalisation agreement was signed.

"We’re very curious people. We like to travel. Israelis are traveling all over the world."

Mr Naeh estimated 50,000 Israelis to visit the UAE every month during winter. Once vaccination against Covid-19 is complete in both countries, he expects tourist traffic to increase rapidly. "I know that UAE tourism companies already making enquiries about packages in Israel. Israel has got many climate zones, forests and mountains and water bodies, which will attract visitors from the UAE."

Turning to co-operation in infrastructure, investments and technology, Mr Naeh said the two countries could learn from each other.

Arab-Israeli normalization initiative needed to advance Middle East peace

THE MIDDLE East conflict has gone on for an absurdly long time not because Arabs and Jews carry genes of mutual enmity, but because for decades, regional dictators have tried to instill in their people feelings of vengeance, fear and hatred of Israel and exploited this to justify and prolong their corrupt and incompetent rule. The byproduct of this strategy has been an environment of oppression and deprivation that breeds fanatics who glorify blind violence. And not merely against Israel. Today, with the world growing smaller, the ideological and operational tentacles of terrorism extend well beyond its birthplace and unleash carnage everywhere, including faraway America. Conclusive defeat of extremism cannot be achieved in the battlefield. Its breeding grounds must be removed.

Of course, there is no reason why Israel and Arab countries themselves should not continue to normalize their relations. Modern information technology has brought the younger generation throughout the world, including in this region, closer together in shared interests and aspirations for freedom and prosperity. In Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere, those in power find it increasingly difficult to mass-brainwash the young into blind political compliance and mindless resentment. This generation rises for its rights and directs its fury at those who deny it a better future. It can no longer be cajoled and manipulated by tales of made-to-order bogeymen. What better evidence than the extremists’ dismal failure in inciting widespread protests at recent Arab-Israeli reconciliation.

Turning decades of misunderstanding, suspicion and hostility into understanding and cooperation may not come about in a day or two, but Arab-Israeli rapprochement can continue with or without America acting as facilitator. If it does, the combined technological, financial and human resources of regional countries can readily give rise to a new power bloc which, depending on America’s attitude and place in the reconciliation process today, would bolster, or pose a challenge to its future global leadership.

UAE ambassador: ‘Abraham Accords were about preventing annexation’

The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the US said Monday that the normalization agreement his country signed with Israel in September was primarily “about preventing annexation.”

Yousef al-Otaiba said that while many had sought to cast the agreement in different lights to suit their own narrative, for him it was mostly about stopping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plan to extend Israeli sovereignty to large parts of the West Bank.

“When the Abraham Accords were announced, everybody… looked at [it] through their own lens,” said al-Otaiba, explaining that both the Palestinians and the Iranians thought the normalization deal was meant as a message to their respective governments.

“The truth is that the Abraham Accords were about preventing annexation. The reason it happened, the way it happened, at the time it happened was to prevent annexation,” he said, speaking on a Zoom panel hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The ambassador recalled conversations with senior White House officials last year during which he tried to explain to them that Arab frustration over annexation would not blow over as it had with US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

“It is going to have a profoundly negative impact on the region, specifically on our friends in Jordan, on the rest of us who have begun opening up with Israel. It’s going to have a negative impact on America and I think on Israel,” he continued.

Australia eyes new trade deal with Israel, focusing on cyber security, innovation

Australia will turn its attention towards clinching a trade agreement with Israel in a deal that would boost innovation, cyber security and defence.

Federal Trade Minister Dan Tehan will prioritise a deal between the two nations in the coming months as negotiations between the governments reach critical stages with the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Mr Tehan said he was keen to work “very quickly this year” on finalising a scoping study for an Israel-Australia free trade agreement by July with the hope to “move to something of more substance by end of the year”.

A similar feasibility study to scope the benefits of beginning trade negotiations with European Free Trade Association countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland will also be undertaken this year.

Israel’s innovation eco-system is one of the most developed in the world, shaped by a sophisticated system of major global investors, start-ups, the Israeli military and universities. Its economy has been growing continuously for the past 16 years, averaging 3.8 per cent GDP growth annually.

Austrade, the federal government’s trade, investment and education promotion agency established one of its five innovation “landing pads” in Tel Aviv in 2016 as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda. The landing pad offered early-stage Australian start-ups a platform to build links with local and multinational business partners in Israel.

Israel Elections: Labor candidate called Gaza 'ghetto,' Israel 'ugly'

The Labor Party faced a controversy on Tuesday after it was revealed that Ibtisam Mara’ana, who won the seventh slot on the party’s list in Monday’s primary, has made extreme statements in the past.

Mara’ana is an award-winning Muslim Arab filmmaker whose films have highlighted the suffering of Arab-Israelis. She is from the Arab village of Fureidis, near Haifa, and is married to a Jewish man.

Mara’ana left the 12th slot on the Meretz list in 2009 before the election to protest the party’s support for Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post revealed Monday.

She called Gaza “a ghetto under cruel occupation” on social media, KAN Reshet Bet reported Tuesday.

Mara’ana criticized the Tel Aviv Municipality for lighting up City Hall with the Lebanese flag after an ecological disaster, saying the building had never been lit up in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Less than two months ago, Mara’ana called the IDF “the occupation army” and accused its soldiers of murdering a Palestinian child.

Selling Land to Israelis: A Capital Crime in the Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority (PA) over the past week has reportedly ramped up its campaign against doing business with Israelis. On January 27, Ramallah reportedly ordered the closure of a Palestinian-owned cement factory accused of coordinating with Jewish communities located beyond the pre-1967 borders. Meanwhile, a Bethlehem court convicted a Palestinian man to 15 years of hard labor in prison for attempting to sell land to an Israeli.

Indeed, the PA considers selling land in the West Bank, including the eastern part of Jerusalem, to Jews a heinous crime that in some cases warrants the death penalty. By outlawing such transactions, including through fatwas, the PA has tried to stop what it calls the “Judaization of the Palestinian lands.” Those violating the prohibition have reportedly been subject to extrajudicial killings.

There are multiple laws under which the PA currently prosecutes citizens who sell land to Israelis, with courts having cited numerous statutes and ordinances in their verdicts. In fact, Palestinians are governed by a somewhat incoherent mix of regulations introduced when Jordan ruled the West Bank from 1948-1967 and, subsequently, through PA decrees.

Before Israel assumed control of the West Bank during the Six Day War, Jordanian law carried a punishment of up to five years in prison for selling land to “foreigners.” Even as late as 1973, the Jordanian parliament, under the direct instructions of the late King Hussein, passed an even stricter “Law to Prevent the Sale of Land to the Enemy,” which explicitly barred any Jordanian citizens in the West Bank from selling land to Israelis.

The 1973 law defined the transaction as a security offense punishable by death. Offenders also risked forfeiting all their property to the state. The same law also forbade land sales to “aliens,” referring to non-Jordanians or non-Arabs, without the Council of Ministers’ permission. This provision effectively banned Jordanians from selling property specifically to Jews.

PMW: PA plants trees to honor 35,000 “Martyrs” – including all suicide bombers

The Palestinian Authority has launched a project to honor all Palestinians who have ‎died as so-called “Martyrs” since 1917. The PA will eventually plant 35,000 olive trees ‎throughout the PA areas with each tree named after a “Martyr.” The PA defines all ‎terrorists killed while attacking Israelis - including suicide bombers and mass murderers ‎‎- as “Martyrs.” This is the largest systematic PA project to honor terrorist murderers that ‎Palestinian Media Watch has ever documented. ‎

Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, who is also Chairman of the PLO ‎Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, launched the project on behalf of PA ‎Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and explained:
“We are honoring the Martyrs of the Palestinian cause from 1917 until now. ‎These Martyrs are the most sacred thing we have.”‎ [Official PA TV, Jan. 6, 2021]‎

Numerous PA institutions are involved in the initiative with which the PA explicitly ‎targets Palestinian youth. One of the places chosen for the trees to be planted is ‎school yards. The Director-General of Youth Affairs at the PLO Supreme Council for ‎Youth and Sports, Muhammad Sbeihat, explained that the intention is “not only to ‎plant saplings, but also that they will be visible to our children, our students, our ‎young men and women.” This focus underscores the PA's policy of promoting terrorists as role models to Palestinian youth, urging them to die as "Martyrs for Palestine." In addition to PA institutions, the organizations invited to ‎take part in the glorification of murderers are scouts groups, school students, and youth ‎clubs:

Israel Delivers 5,000 Vaccines to Frontline Palestinian Health Workers

Palestinian Ministry of Health says it received today 2,000 Moderna vaccines, but doesn't say where they came from (Israel).

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) February 1, 2021

US all but admits nuclear deal has failed

Monday's statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Tehran could be "weeks away" from developing enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, had one clear goal: to set the stage for a new nuclear deal with the Islamic republic.

The novelty lies with Washington's desire to craft a "longer and stronger" deal, as he put it, but in fact, the message was a discreet admission by the Biden administration that the 2015 deal brokered by then-US President Barack Obama had failed.

The Biden administration's message was directed at two audiences: the first is America's European allies such as France and Britain, and the other signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from which former President Donald Trump pulled in 2018; and the second is Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which is already gearing up for a diplomatic standoff on the issue vis-à-vis US President Joe Biden.

A glance at Biden's picks for top positions in his administration quickly reveals that most held senior positions in the Obama administration, giving a clear hint at so where the US is headed in terms of talks with the ayatollahs.

Israel, for its part, isn't wasting any time and is already preparing for a host of scenarios, including – as IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi stated last week – military contingencies.

There is no doubt that Tehran will see Biden's eagerness to re-enter the nuclear deal as a sign of weakness and it will try to extort the US accordingly. After all, Iran has the benefit of time: it can keep edging toward a bomb and if it can humiliate the "Great Satan" along the way – why not?

Israel sees 6-month Iran nuclear breakout, longer than Blinken projection

Israel's energy minister said on Tuesday it would take Iran around six months to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon, a timeline almost twice as long as that anticipated by a senior member of the Biden administration.

Israel is wary of the administration's intent to reenter the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and has long opposed the agreement. Washington argues that the previous Trump administration's withdrawal from the deal backfired by prompting Iran to abandon caps on nuclear activities.

Speaking last month a day before he took office as US secretary of state, Antony Blinken said that the so-called "breakout time" - in which Iran might ramp up enrichment of uranium to bomb-fuel purity - "has gone from beyond a year (under the deal) to about three or four months." He said he based his comments on information in public reporting.

But Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, in a radio interview, said the Trump administration "seriously damaged Iran's nuclear project and entire force build-up."

"In terms of enrichment, [the Iranians] are in a situation of breaking out in around half a year if they do everything required," he told public broadcaster Kan. "As for nuclear weaponry, the range is around one or two years."

UN: Iran, breaching deal, installs 2nd batch of advanced centrifuges at Natanz

Iran has continued to ramp up its nuclear program in violation of its 2015 agreement with world powers by further enriching uranium and installing new centrifuges, the United Nations’ nuclear agency said.

The fresh breaches of the nuclear deal came as tensions continued to climb in the Middle East, and US and Israeli officials issued warnings about Iran’s nuclear program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency — in a confidential report obtained by Reuters and published Tuesday — said Iran has begun enriching uranium in its underground Natanz plant with a second cascade, or cluster, of centrifuges,.

Iran recently installed a second cascade of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at Natanz to enrich uranium and will soon add a third. Iran was only allowed to use a less advanced type of centrifuge under the terms of the nuclear deal.

The first cascade it installed recently was composed of 174 IR-2m machines, according to Reuters.

Iran’s envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed on Tuesday the installation of the second batch of advanced centrifuges at Natanz.

“Thanks to our diligent nuclear scientists, two cascades of 348 IR2m centrifuges with almost 4 times the capacity of IR1 are now running… successfully in Natanz,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on Twitter. “Installation of 2 cascades of IR6 centrifuges has also been started in Fordo. There’s more to come soon.”

Blinken: No New Deal Before Iran Ends Nuclear Buildup

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Iran must end its nuclear buildup before the United States returns to the 2015 accord, comments likely to rankle Tehran as it continues to stockpile highly enriched materials that could be used in an atomic weapon.

Blinken said in response to reports that Iran is stockpiling enriched uranium, in violation of the international accord still being upheld by European powers, that the United States will negotiate when Iran recommits to promises made under the deal.

While the Biden administration has said that it wants to return to the nuclear agreement that President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, Blinken said in his first televised interview on Monday that the United States will not lift sanctions until Iran halts its enrichment of uranium, the key component in an atomic weapon. Blinken's remarks signal a showdown is coming between the United States and Iran over its contested uranium enrichment program. Iran has increased the amount of uranium it keeps in the country over the past several months, blowing past caps established in the nuclear deal that prevent Tehran from stockpiling weapons-grade materials.

Iranian leaders announced last week that they will begin to decrease their level of cooperation with international nuclear inspectors until Western nations grant the country relief from tough economic sanctions. Iran also is pushing forward with the installation of 1,000 advanced nuclear centrifuges, which enrich uranium to the levels needed to power a weapon. Tehran is ahead of schedule on its plan to enrich uranium past the 20 percent threshold, activity that is prohibited under the nuclear deal and would bring Tehran closer than ever to weapons-grade materials.

Iran's Zarif: If Iran wanted, we would already have a nuclear weapon

If Iran wanted a nuclear weapon, it would have built one already, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in an interview with CNN published Tuesday.

“If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done it some time ago,” he told Christiane Amanpour. “But we decided that nuclear weapons are not, would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our, eh, ideological views. And that is why we never pursued nuclear weapons.”

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC if Iran violated additional restrictions included in the 2015 nuclear deal, it could obtain enough fissionable material for a bomb within “a matter of weeks.”

The uranium enriched by Iran could immediately be scaled back to comply with the nuclear deal if the US lifts sanctions, Zarif said. “Eight thousand pounds of enriched uranium can go back to the previous amount in less than a day,” he said.

President Joe Biden’s administration has a “limited window of opportunity” to reenter the 2015 nuclear agreement, Zarif said.

Aside from Zarif’s blatant lie that all Iran’s nuclear activities have been monitored and verified by the IAEA, his prioritization of oil and banking sanctions relief is problematic for the Biden administration. These are terrorism sanctions, not nuclear sanctions. https://t.co/wwuXUEGsG2

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) February 1, 2021

This 'interview' is just embarrassing. @camanpour grills Israeli leaders, yet continues to be an apologist for #Iran, giving an open-platform to officials like @JZarif, refusing to challenge him or hold him to account. #amanpour https://t.co/Og0fM0RlS4

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 1, 2021

Fmr. Iranian Diplomat Amir Mousavi: A Fatwa Is Not Permanent; Khamenei Might Change Fatwa Forbidding a Military Nuclear Project; Iran Forced Obama to Sign the JCPOA, and It Has the Cards to Force Biden to Return to It #JCPOA #Iran #khamenei #Biden pic.twitter.com/uADoniUsTe

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 1, 2021

Senior Iranian Official Mojtaba Zonnour: If Biden Wants to Return to the JCPOA He Must Lift Sanctions; Iran Will Only Negotiate Its Missile Program Once Missile Power, Defensive Capabilities of the U.S., West, Israel Are Removed #Iran #JCPOA pic.twitter.com/1ea4dw4LUR

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 2, 2021

PreOccupiedTerritory: ‘Groundhog Day’ A Little Too On The Nose As Description Of Biden Iran Policy

Punxsutawney, February 2 – Meteorologist Phil Connors acknowledged that the emerging policy of the new presidential administration toward the Islamic Republic of Iran and the latter’s nuclear weapons ambitions convinces him that he is living yesterday over again, with yesterday in this case the Obama administration’s attitude toward the same issue.

The weatherman for WPBH-TV Pittsburgh, on his seventh annual trip to this hamlet in Western Pennsylvania, observed this morning that the apparent embrace by the Biden team of Obama-era assumptions, attitudes, and personnel vis-à-vis Iran’s nuclear weapons program – among the regime’s other hegemonic ambitions – makes him swear he lived through this whole scenario already, and it didn’t turn out well.

“Well, it’s Groundhog Day… again,” Connors began with a forced smile, “and I’m pretty sure this whole ‘Let’s make concessions to Iran and thus enable them to shorten their timeline to atomic weapons and the delivery systems for those weapons’ thing has been tried already. No one else around here, or in the president’s inner circle, appears to notice we’re repeating yesterday’s mistakes that only emboldened the mullahs in their ethnic cleansing, repression of dissent, persecution of homosexuals, financing of international terrorism, and fomenting instability.”

“Definitely seen this before,” continued Connors. “Except in this scenario, I can’t see myself leveraging my foreknowledge into getting my hands on serious dough, getting laid, or impressing random strangers. And I thought my original situation was depressing.”

The déjà vu surrounding the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – known as the JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – extends beyond the behavior of the Khamenei regime in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, and Saud Arabia. It also readopts the fruitless attitude that only resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will lead to broader Israel-Arab normalization; that only pressure on Israel can induce any change in the Israeli-Palestinian dynamic; and that recognizing Israeli claims in the Golan, Jerusalem, and Judea/Samaria will lead to increased violence. Connors wondered whether the current impending repeat would make a more epic story than his.

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