{"id":8501,"date":"2010-11-09T02:49:44","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T10:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=8501"},"modified":"2010-11-10T13:18:34","modified_gmt":"2010-11-10T21:18:34","slug":"tuesday-iran-talking-points-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/09\/tuesday-iran-talking-points-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Iran Talking Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog<\/a>: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for November 9th, 2010:<\/em><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/em>: Senior Council on Foreign Relations<\/a> fellow and former George W. Bush policy adviser Michael Gerson<\/a> writes that after the midterm election, Obama may choose to focus his efforts on foreign policy. He warns that Obama will make little headway in bringing peace in the Middle East because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Palestinian leaders are divided \u00e2\u20ac\u201c unable to deliver on the agreements they are too weak to make in the first place. Israelis feel relatively safe behind security walls, uninclined toward risky compromise and concerned mainly about Iran,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d echoing the reverse linkage argument<\/a> frequently employed by hawks in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Gerson concludes that threat of military force against Iran is unlikely because, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When a president threatens force, he also loses control. And Barack Obama seems to be a man who values control.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As for the Tea Party movement, Gerson says it represents a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jacksonian ascendancy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on Capitol Hill and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153will urge more forceful policies against Cuba, Iran and Venezuela \u00e2\u20ac\u201c along with Russia and China.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Time<\/a><\/em>: Tony Karon discusses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pressure onVice President Joe Biden to get tough with Iran. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The only way to ensure that Iran will not go nuclear is to create a credible threat of military action against it if it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cease its race for a nuclear weapon,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Netanyahu reportedly told Biden. Karon writes that the Obama administration would have neither a legal basis nor international support in initiating a war with Iran. But the real challenge for the Obama administration, says Karon, may lie in the charges voiced by Republicans that Obama is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153soft on Tehran\u00e2\u20ac\u009d whenever any attempt at engagement with Iran is pursued. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That will certainly suit the Israeli leadership, who not only want to see a more confrontational U.S. position on Iran, but who also came into office insisting that Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nuclear program, rather than peace with the Palestinians, should be Washington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s priority in the Middle East.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em>: Walid Phares of the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies<\/a> opines on the imminent judgement of the tribunal investigating the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minsiter Rafik Hariri. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thanks largely to bountiful Iranian aid, Hezbollah is winning its war against international justice,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d writes Phares. He expects many Hezbollah members will be charged, but not arrested. He views Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent trip to Lebanon as an indication that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Iran, and not only its minions, would act in the event of an adverse ruling.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Phares concludes by imploring the UN, which helped set up the tribunal, to adhere to the UN charter which permits the use of force to ensure such rulings are enforced.He concedes this is unlikely, since it requires consent of the Lebanese government.<\/p>\n

AFP<\/a><\/em>: The newswire reports on the comments of the deputy commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, who said that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Iranian influence has diminished somewhat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Via a video conference, Cone told reporters in Washington, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We see all sorts of Iranian influence \u00e2\u20ac\u201d some of it positive, in fact.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He added that some of the negative influence is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153very difficult to attribute that to the Iranian government\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a reference to the fact that the alleged Iranian weapons entering Iraq may come from non-state actors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for November 9th, 2010: The Washington Post: Senior Council on Foreign Relations fellow and former George W. Bush policy adviser Michael Gerson writes that after the midterm election, Obama may choose to focus his efforts on foreign policy. He warns that Obama will make little headway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8508,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8501\/revisions\/8508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8501"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}