Spring of freedom

A staff member removes the Iranian flag from the stage during the Iran nuclear talks at the Vienna International Center National Review, August 17, 2017  - It’s no secret that President Trump would like to shake off the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear agreement with Iran. Negotiated by the Obama administration and opposed by most Americans when it was finalized in 2015, it was called by candidate Trump “the stupidest deal of all time.” In his search for the right mechanism to break free of Obama’s nuclear handcuffs, he appears to have settled on declaring that Iran is in violation of the agreement. Questions about the fate of the international arrangement came to the fore during Trump’s presidency first in April and again in July when the recurring 90-day deadline to certify Iran’s compliance came up. According to multiple reports, Trump was ready to label Iran noncompliant but on both occasions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hadn’t ...

Delivering on his promise to take a harder line with the volatile U.S. foe., President Trump imposed sanctions on 13 people and 12 companies By: Professor Ivan Sascha Sheehan The Baltimore Sun, June 22, 2017- - The election of Donald Trump last year set the stage for major changes in U.S. foreign policy and particularly American policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. Almost six months into his first term the administration is now well positioned to lay the foundation for a lasting Middle East legacy by boldly embracing the goal of regime change in Tehran. Whereas the Obama administration took great pride in the Iran nuclear deal it helped to negotiate, then GOP candidate Donald Trump repeatedly referred to the agreement as one of the worst deals ever negotiated. Although the Trump White House is technically upholding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it has also imposed tough new sanctions on the regime that are unrelated to the Iranian nuclear program. I...

An Iranian military truck carries parts of an air defence missile system during a parade on the occasion of the countrys Army Day NEWSMAX,  20 Jun 2017 --  On June 18, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched several midrange missiles from western Iran across Iraq and hit sources in Syria of Islamic State (ISIS) attacks on Tehran on June 7. In the context of these strikes, consider revelations about Iran’s missile sites on June 20 by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (  NCRI  ) office in the United States (The People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, PMOI aka Mujahedeen-e-Khalq MEK is the largest unit in the NCRI.) Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the major powers began during 2013 and culminated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Thereafter, the IRGC intensified its activities to develop and expand Tehran’s missile program based on orders of the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, per the NCRI revelat...