Posts tagged : "Iran’s nuclear program"

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal was one of his most controversial foreign policy decisions. As one of his campaign promises it was not unexpected, but the unilateral decertification of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has multiplied the workload of international diplomats who are working hard to salvage the accord. President Trump’s decision may originate from his hostility toward Barack Obama and his achievements, as well as Trump’s apocalyptic views toward Iran and the Muslim world. Whatever the reason, a robust international agreement has been dismantled by the US government and the long-term outcomes will be disappointing. Peter Kuznick, professor of...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Iran and the US have been at odds since the 1979 revolution. They have had no diplomatic relations since April 7, 1980. One event that marked the revolution was the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students attacked the compound and took 99 people hostage, including 66 Americans. The episode came to be known as the Iran hostage crisis and lasted 444 days. As tensions soared between the two governments, US President Jimmy Carter said he would “not yield to blackmail” and resorted to different options to rescue the hostages. Although diplomacy failed to solve the crisis in a timely fashion, the victims were released in 1981 as Ronald Reagan was being...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: Aside from its declining currency, which is known as one of the world’s most worthless currencies, Iran is reputed to have one of the most unsafe and aged aviation fleets. In recent years, hundreds of passengers have lost their lives while flying on Iranian airliners due to their age and the failure of the companies to improve their standards. The inability of Iranian airlines to buy new aircraft and renovate their fleet is mostly a result of economic sanctions that the United States has imposed on Iran since the 1980s. Some of the deadliest aviation accidents in the world have involved Iranian airliners. A notable example is the Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, which was a scheduled...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: Many journalists, academicians and foreign policy experts raised concerns about Donald Trump’s lack of political and foreign policy experience during the presidential campaign. Were their concerns justified? Perry Cammack (@perrycammack), a fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says President Trump has “a singular genius for self-promotion” and his approach to foreign policy represents his approach to “Manhattan real estate or reality television.” The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, popularly known as the Iran deal, is a multilateral accord between Iran and the European Union represented by France, Germany and the United...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: On May 8, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Washington will de-certify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, popularly known as the Iran deal. The withdrawal of the United States from the agreement and President Trump’s promise to impose harsh sanctions on Iran has further complicated Iran-U.S. relations, resulted in more stress on Iran’s economy and as a result, caused public discontent in Iran with the government of President Hassan Rouhani who had promised improvements in the economy and a resolution to the nuclear dispute. Retired Lt. General Arlen D. Jameson, the former Deputy Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Strategic Command, says the decision by President Trump to...

Kourosh Ziabari - Gateway House: United States President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally decertify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the Iran Deal – was no surprise to Iranians and the international community. Withdrawal from it was one of the strange promises Trump had made during his presidential campaign, matching in eccentricity his Muslim ban, the Wall project along with the border with Mexico and the decision to negotiate with North Korea directly. Earlier this week, Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech toughened the U.S. stance on Iran. Some of the “sweeping changes” that the U.S. has sought include Iran’s agreeing to pull out of the Syrian war, reducing its...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: To diplomats, ambassadors and officials of the Obama administration, President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions are incomprehensible, radical and unexpected as they are to many citizens across the world. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal was one of his eyebrow-raising moves. Tara Sonenshine, who was the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs under President Obama, says the decision by President Trump to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal is a public diplomacy nightmare. Ambassador Sonenshine is one of the many Obama administration diplomats who believe that President Trump has devalued “America’s word.” “You don’t...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: On May 8, US President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran deal, is a multilateral agreement between Iran and the six world powers that was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council. The accord, which was agreed in 2015, caps Iran’s nuclear activities in return for the removal of economic sanctions. It also reconnects Iran to the world’s financial and banking system. Trump’s de-certification of the deal was not unexpected. It was one of his campaign promises in 2016. He has pejoratively called the accord “Obama’s deal,” referring to his predecessor, Barack Obama, and has criticized...

Kourosh Ziabari - Medium: It’s been three years since Iran and the six world powers came to an agreement to solve the longstanding controversy surrounding Iran’s nuclear program. The nuclear deal that was signed in July 2015 was what the international community was looking for for so long. It was the concrete translation of vague and abstract ideals that everybody knew what they were, but couldn’t be actualised for several reasons, mostly political intransigence. Iran deal, according to the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, was an agreement that was supposed to be the manifestation of a zero-sum game, and even for President Obama, it was a victory. India was one of many countries that reaped major benefits from the lifting of...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: U.S. President Donald Trump has called for new sanctions against Iran and proposed decertification of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran Deal. Trump has given the European signatories to the agreement, most importantly Britain, Germany and France, an ultimatum to fix the flaws in the Iran deal or forget about the United States’ continued investment in the agreement, which according to Trump, was Obama’s deal and one of the most disastrous and one-sided accords the U.S. has ever entered into. Terms and conditions of the JCPOA are clear. In a nutshell, Iran rolls back certain aspects of its ambitious nuclear programme, sticks to its technical...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: Iran’s role in the Middle East and the region has regularly been questioned and cast into doubt. It’s mostly questioned by the critics of the country’s controversial and ambitious nuclear program and its foreign policy. Iranians will, by and large, gloss over key issues while critics of Tehran specifically cite its foreign policy as a reason to scuttle the nuclear agreement. The current Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, was widely seen as a sensible choice to run the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The truth, however, is that there are few well-trained and educated diplomats with relevant qualifications to run the Ministry. And what progress Zarif does make on the foreign stage his...

AFP Photo Kourosh Ziabari - Medium: Four people stormed the Iranian Embassy in London on Friday, 9th March and took down the Islamic Republic’s flag to give the Iranian government authorities ammunition for the escalation of tensions with the UK at a time the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is hindering the smooth and unhindered progress of bilateral relations. The attackers were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police “on suspicion of causing criminal damage and being unlawfully on diplomatic premises”. The attack was intrinsically condemned by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, and some hardliners in Tehran suggested that there is a case of negligence against the UK Police. No evidence to back up this allegation has been...