Tag: Iran

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Trump Tweets Caps-Locked Rant At Country That Can’t See Twitter

Donald Trump

Donald Trump shocked many last night as he tweeted a full-on, caps-lock threat to Iran.

According to newspaper reports, Iran’s President Rouhani urged Trump to make peace with Iran.

Rouhani is quoted as saying “American must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”

Rouhani went on to warn Trump to stop “playing with the lion’s tail” and threatening Iran, “or else you will regret it.”

And so, the Trumpster’s tiny fingers tapped out, “To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”

It’s not clear who Trump was trying to impress with his swagger as Twitter has been banned in Iran since 2009. So, the folks there weren’t reading this.

The Twitterverse immediately assumed some bad news is about to come down Trump’s pike and this was a case of ‘wag the dog.’

As we all know, Trump has tweeted the idea of threatening war with Iran as a distraction many times in the past.

There’s always a tweet.

More from the tweet people:

Some Twitterers took the missive for the unhinged musing that it is and just inserted song lyrics at random:

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Trump Announces U.S. Will Withdraw From Iran Nuclear Agreement

Donald Trump

Donald Trump announced today that the United States will be leaving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The 2015 agreement between the United States, Iran, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and the European Union eased sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.

In withdrawing from the nuclear deal, Trump says the U.S. will reinstate “the highest level” of sanctions against Iran.

Responding to the news, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his country, “I have ordered Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization to be ready to restart industrial nuclear activities in case we feel it is needed.”

In a rare public expression of disagreement, former President Obama issued a statement which read, in part, “The consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.”

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White House Condemns Recent Actions By Iran: “We Are Officially Putting Iran On Notice”

National Security Advisor Michael Flynn says U.S. condemns recent actions by Iran regarding missile incidents: “As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.”

Read the full statement below (click image to enlarge):

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Colin Powell Announces Support For Iran Nuclear Agreement

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told NBC’s Chuck Todd of “Meet the Press” that he supports President Obama’s Nuclear deal for Iran currently being debated in Congress.

Powell said the opponents of the proposal were ignoring the rapid development of Iran’s nuclear program dating back to the Bush years.

“They have been on a superhighway for the last 10 years to create a nuclear weapon or a nuclear weapons program, with no speed limit. And in the last 10 years they have gone from 136 centrifuges up to something like 19,000 centrifuges. This agreement will bring them down to 5,000 centrifuges, all of them under [International Atomic Energy Agency] supervision. And I think this is a good outcome.”

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Maryland Sen. Mikulski Becomes 34th Vote For President Obama’s Iran/Nuclear Agreement

With the announcement by Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who says she will be the 34th U.S. Senator to vote for President Obama’s Iran/Nuclear deal, Obama gets his foreign policy legacy.

From Huffington Post:

Under the deal, Iran would be subjected to comprehensive inspections on its nuclear program and forced to reduce current uranium stockpiles and the number of its centrifuges. In exchange, it will be granted sanctions relief estimated to be anywhere between $50 billion and $150 billion. But the deal phases out between years 10 and 15, albeit with Iran still forced to provide some access for inspections for another 10 years thereafter. And even for supporters of the initiative, concerns remain about the possibilities of a quick military breakout once restrictions ease.

Faced with this pushback, the administration has implored lawmakers to consider the alternative, in which no restrictions are placed on Iran and the world community is unwilling to rework the accord. A briefing between ambassadors and officials from the other countries party to the deal — in which they articulated their reluctance to head back to the negotiating table — was highly persuasive to several Democratic senators.

Almost every current GOP candidate for president has said they would kill the agreement upon being sworn into office.

Whether such statements can become a reality as so simply stated are another matter. Reneging on an international agreement involving several nations could be more politically complex than tossing out a stump speech.

Democratic leaders say they are still working towards 40 votes in favor of the deal to help keep a resolution of disapproval from getting a vote.

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President Obama Slaps Back At Mike Huckabee Over Iran/Israel Comments

Speaking at a press conference in Ethiopia, President Obama slapped back at current GOP presidential hopefuls who have taken to making “ridiculous” claims about his policies, and “outrageous attacks” that were unbecoming to presidential politics.

The president was asked about Mike Huckabee’s assertion yesterday that the nuclear deal currently under consideration with Iran would “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”

via Mike Huckabee Twitter

Addressing the question, Obama tied Huckabee’s comments to other Republican 2016 nominees:

“The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are just part of a general pattern we’ve seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad. We’ve had a sitting senator call John Kerry Pontius Pilate. We’ve had a sitting senator, who also happens to be running for president, suggest that I’m the leading state sponsor of terrorism. These are leaders in the Republican Party.”

Obama later said the comments by Huckabee might be an attempt at getting some attention for his languishing presidential campaign: “Maybe this is just an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines.”

The president summed up the current political environment like this:

“The Republican Party is shocked, and yet that arises out of a culture where those kinds of outrageous attacks have become far too commonplace and get circulated nonstop through the Internet and talk radio and news outlets. And I recognize that when outrageous statements are made about me, a lot of the same people who were outraged when it’s made about Mr. McCain were pretty quiet.”

“The American people deserve better. Certainly presidential debates deserve better. In 18 months, I’m turning over the keys. I want to make sure I’m turning over the keys to somebody who’s serious about the serious problems the country faces and the world faces.”

(source)

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ThinkProgress Explains The Iran Nuclear Deal Via Legos

Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress explains the 109 page Iran nuclear deal in 60 seconds using legos.

Under the proposal, the Persian nation must limit its stockpiles of uranium and plutonium in order to secure sanction relief from the west.

IGOR VOLSKY: This wall of legos represents the sanctions that separate Iran from the Western world.

The West has long suspected that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Now, Iran denies this, but it continues to acquire the nuclear materials necessary for a bomb. As a result, the West continues the sanctions.

This has isolated Iran and pushed it to the negotiation table.

Under the agreed-upon terms, Iran must dramatically reduce its nuclear materials, making it much more difficult to acquire a bomb. It will also have to allow international inspectors in to ensure that it’s keeping its word. Then, the sanction wall will begin to crumble.

If Iran violates the agreement, the inspectors will alert the west and they will build the sanction wall right back up.

Now, critics argue that an empowered Iran could destabilize the Middle East and fund terror groups. The world, including the United States, will certainly have to come up with a policy to counteract any nefarious activities, but at least those threats won’t carry nuclear weapons.

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U.S. Senate Votes 98-1 To Give Congress A Say Over Emerging Nuclear Iran Deal

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill intended to give Congress a say in the emerging nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S. and its five negotiating partners.

The final vote was 98 to 1, with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) as the lone no-show and junior Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) casting the only dissenting vote.

More at Huffington Post.