Since its 1979 revolution, ending a generation of US-installed fascist dictatorship, Washington has been militantly hostile toward Iran — especially since Trump took office.
His regime continues all out war by other means to topple its government, wanting the Islamic Republic returned to US client state status, its vast oil and gas reserves looted, its people ruthlessly exploited, the way things were from 1953 – 1979 under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
That’s what Pompeo has in mind by saying the Trump regime is “prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions (sic). We are ready to sit down with” Iranian officials, adding:
“The American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity (sic) of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue.”
Pompeo’s notion of “no preconditions” is subterfuge. US harshness toward Iran shows its real objectives.
The US under Republicans and Dems oppose all sovereign independent governments they don’t control.
They’re especially hostile to ruling authorities against Washington’s imperial agenda, its wars of aggression, its hostility toward peace, equity, and justice, its rage to dominate other nations, control their resources, and exploit their people as serfs.
Pompeo also failed to explain that Israel’s top geopolitical aim is eliminating Islamic Republic rule, for years urging the US to terror-bomb the country into submission, one of John Bolton’s longtime positions.
There’s no softening whatever of Trump regime policy toward Iran. Harsh rhetoric, Big Lies about the country, mean-spirited toughness, and longstanding US plans for wanting its government toppled drown out remarks like Pompeo’s on Sunday.
Last July, two months after he illegally abandoned the JCPOA nuclear deal, Trump said he’d meet with his Iranian counterpart without preconditions.
“If they want to meet, we’ll meet,” he added, saying as well his only concern is over not wanting Iran to develop a nuclear weapon it abhors, doesn’t seek, never has, and wants eliminated everywhere — Israel the only regional nuclear armed and dangerous state, a reality he ignores, supporting the Jewish state’s high crimes, mainly against defenseless Palestinians.
Trump’s public remarks show he’s a geopolitical know-nothing, an embarrassment to the office he holds, an unindicted war criminal multiple times over for endless aggression in multiple theaters on his watch, along with war by other means on Iran and Venezuela.
His comments last year on willingness to talk to Iran came ahead of US weaponized sanctions — aiming to drive its oil and gas exports to zero, along with disconnecting its banks from the SWIFT international financial transactions system, and other steps to crush its economy and inflict enormous hardships on its people.
In mid-May, Trump again said he’s willing to talk to Iran — around the same time a US carrier strike force and nuclear-capable B-52 bombers were deployed to the Middle East over fake intelligence claiming an Iranian threat that doesn’t exist, not now or at any time in Islamic Republic history.
John Bolton’s claims about Iranian responsibility for sabotaging Saudi and UAE tankers are Big Lies, aimed at heightening tensions further, risking possible war if things are pushed too far.
Preconditions define US relations with other countries, demanding they bend to its will, cooperative relations and compromise in international relations ruled out — especially with nations on the US target list for regime change like Russia, China, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, and Iran.
On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said
his government “support(s) logic and negotiation if (the Trump regime) sits at the negotiating table and fully respects and follows international regulations, not if it issues a decree to negotiate.”
On Sunday he said
“(t)he party (meaning the US) who left the negotiating table and upended an agreement must come back to normal conditions,” adding:
Otherwise “I declare as the representative of the Iranian nation that in this period, and for as long as the enemy does not regret its measures in the past, we have no way but to show resistance.”
As long as the Trump regime remains a JCPOA scofflaw, breaching international law by abandoning the nuclear deal, along with maintaining illegal sanctions on Iran, aiming to crush its economy and harm its people, there’s no basis for talks.
There’s reason to engage with the US only if it fully complies with its international obligations and the rule of law — clearly what it has no intention of doing.
In late May, Iranian leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ruled out talks with the Trump regime, calling them “fruitless, harmful, (and) a total loss,” adding:
US talks are all about applying pressure, he stressed, unrelated to evenhanded negotiations and mutual respect.
North Korean officials can explain the futility of talks with the US, accomplishing nothing but unacceptable demands and empty promises, what Iran knows well from 40 years of hostile US actions against the country.
Separately on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed EU countries for breaching their JCPOA obligations, saying the following:
“Europe has not complied with any of the terms of the agreement in practice. Ostensibly, it has, but not in practice. What Europe has to do is to implement the deal” — what it refuses to do, adding:
“The UN Security Council issued a resolution on the JCPOA. The resolution follows two objectives: guarantee the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and guarantee the normalization of Iran’s economic relations with the world.”
The Islamic Republic is in full compliance with JCPOA provisions. So are Russia and China. The US illegally pull out. Britain, France, and Germany, the other signatories, failed to fulfill their obligations. The same goes for other EU countries, yielding to US pressure instead of observing the rule of law.
Zarif asked EU governments “how many European companies are currently operating in Iran? How many European banks are working with Iran?”
How many EU countries are maintaining normal political, economic, financial, and trade relations with the Islamic Republic?
The answer is none, bowing to unacceptable US interests instead, showing their ruling authorities can never be trusted, the same, of course, true for the US.
As for negotiating with Trump regime hardliners, Iran wants no part of dealing with rogue actors bent on destroying the country and enslaving its people.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Featured image is from LobeLog
