“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw
Apr 16, 2025
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LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
This professed to be high-level-conference- between the United States and Iran has become an absolutely ridiculous fiasco. It is now virtually impossible for Iran to comply with Trump’s own inconsistent demands, and the confused mess he and his administration in preparation by Trump for his Real Estate spokesman doing the early negotiations in Onan, makes America, as it deserves, look like utter fools who have no idea what they are doing, and Trump is leading the confusion, turning the entire conference into chaos even before it gets started. And it only took 12 hours to completely make Iran’s side of the agreement impossible unless they abandon their nuclear power plans altogether, which was not the original purpose of the meeting at all.
Does this mean that Trump simply goes ahead and acts on his constant threats to “bomb” Iran? He has said over and over again that if an agreement, a “deal” in his words, is not reached, he will “bomb” Iran. At this point one has to ask himself which nation is the peaceful, honest, negotiator.
In addition to this latest SNAFU, the previous location scheduled for Rome, has been changed to remain in Onan. There is so much wrong with Trump’s contradictions and the sudden denying of possible use of low-grade refined uranium fuel, now being turned into “none”, that, to me at least, the U.S. side of the meetings was based totally on Trump’s typical pathological lying, which I have suspected all-along. This kind of “deal-making” cannot stand, and his two-faced methods of making dishonesty a function of “diplomacy” is absolute insanity.
The entire world, including what’s left of the “free world”, have lost faith and no longer trust America to be a fair-dealing International State. Many have already begun the planning for building their own nuclear weapons of mass destruction inventories because they can’t rely on America to continue to support NATO — that the U.S. originated, by the way, as the “Washington Treaty” — and other responsible peaceful nations. Trump is creating fear, chaos, and pandemonium around the entire world . . . This cannot stand! ~llaw
Trump envoy demands Iran eliminate nuclear programme in apparent U-turn
Steve Witkoff’s switch from saying low-level production could continue seen as example of chaotic US foreign policy
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Tue 15 Apr 2025 13.44 EDT
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Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has announced Iran must totally eliminate its nuclear programme, seeming to reverse the policy he had articulated on Fox News only 12 hours earlier that would have allowed Iran to enrich uranium at a low level for civilian use.
The switch to a more hardline policy is likely to make it much harder for the US to reach a negotiated agreement with Tehran, bringing back the threat of an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
In a further switch, it was agreed that the next round of indirect US-Iran talks, due to start on Saturday, will continue to be in Oman and the venue would not switch to Italy as proposed by the US.
In a statement posted to social media on Tuesday Witkoff said: “A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal. Any final arrangement must set in place a framework for peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East – meaning that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponisation program. It is imperative for the world that we create a tough fair deal that will endure, and that is what President Trump has asked me to do.”
The previous day on Fox News, the special envoy had said “the conversation with the Iranians” would concern uranium enrichment at 3.67 % for civil nuclear purposes.
“In some circumstances they are enriching at 60% and at others at 20%. That cannot be,” he said. “You do not need to run, as they claim, a civil nuclear programme where you are enriching past 3.67%. This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment programme and then ultimately verification on weaponisation – that includes the type of missiles they have stockpiled there and the trigger for a bomb.”
Witkoff’s two positions are hard to reconcile – unless he is trying to distinguish between an interim deal that reduces Iranian uranium enrichment to civilian levels and a final agreement that eliminates its nuclear programme entirely.
It also possible Trump has faced a backlash from Iran hawks who warned that Witkoff’s negotiating stance was largely re-establishing the nuclear deal Barack Obama had agreed with Iran in 2015, from which Trump withdrew the US in 2018 saying it was unenforceable.
Witkoff’s apparent volte face may also be seen as another example of chaotic foreign policymaking, in which the administration battles behind the president’s back and he either does not focus on the policy details or does not understand the choices he is allowing to be made on his behalf.
Witkoff, a man with no diplomatic experience and charged with producing diplomatic breakthroughs in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran, has never tried to portray himself as anything than Trump’s messenger. He would have thought the proposals he aired in the weekend talks in Oman and on Fox News were those of the president.
Iran has repeatedly demanded the right to maintain a civil nuclear programme, meaning the latest iteration of US thinking will cause consternation in Tehran and could strengthen hardliners, who maintain the US cannot be trusted.
A rare consensus had broken out in Tehran that the talks between Witkoff and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, could result in some US sanctions being lifted as part of the most positive development in relations between Iran and the US in a decade.
The head of the UN nuclear inspectorate, Rafael Grossi, is due to visit Iran this week to see if progress can be made on improving his inspectors’ access to Iran’s nuclear sites.
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