Iran Nuclear Deal

Abdou Abbary, Niger’s envoy to the UN, assumes the Security Council presidency for September 2020. It is the first time the nation has been in the Council for almost 40 years. JOHN PENNEY 
Niger hasn’t been a member of the Security Council for almost 40 years, and now that it has a voice on one of the world’s most visible platforms, it intends to use it to build more alliances with influential world powers while furthering a regional agenda.

Secretary of State Pompeo with Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani of Indonesia, president of the Security Council for August, at the UN in New York City, Aug. 20, 2020. Pompeo delivered a letter to trigger a 30-day process that could reimpose UN sanctions on Iran. RON PRZYSUCHA/STATE DEPARTMENT

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, with Saudi King Salman during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 16, 2017. (Lintao Zhang Pool Photo via AP) Unfettered Chinese support for Saudi Arabia’s so far peaceful nuclear energy program risks fueling a burgeoning Middle East arms race amid concerns that the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement[Read More...]

Secretary of State Pompeo visiting the Patton Museum, which commemorates the United States role in liberating Czechoslovakia, in Pilsen, Czech Republic, Aug. 11, 2020. While Pompeo was traveling in Europe last week, the UN Security Council rejected a US draft resolution to extend the Iran arms ban. The five European countries in the Council and six other nations abstained in the vote. RON PRZYSUCHA/STATE DEPARTMENT

In New York City at the UN, Ambassador Kelly Craft with Talal Alhaj of Al Arabiya TV, Aug. 11, 2020, discussing the US effort to extend the Iran arms ban. Craft tweeted: “Allowing Iran to gain access to new, more powerful weapons would only fuel new terror, chaos & bloodshed in the region & beyond. The choice for the UNSC should be obvious.”

Brian Hook, the US envoy for Iran, with Prime Minister  Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, Kuwait City, July 27, 2020. Hook has left his job just as the US wants the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution extending the arms ban embedded in the Iran nuclear deal. Elliott Abrams, US envoy for Venezuela, is to replace Hook. 

The Indonesian delegation, June 2018, when it was elected as a member from the Asia-Pacific region to the UN Security Council for 2019-2020. Retno Marsudi, foreign affairs minister, right; and Dian Triansyah Djani, center, the UN ambassador. The key to managing in the Council? Tolerance and patience, he said. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO

From Ochelli.com No Mike Swanson this week. So keeping with the Tuesday tradition on the show of being highly informative, Chuck and Pearse packed as much news and information into two hours as they could From Bill Barr on Capital Hill to Explosions in Iran, Porkins and Ochelli covered the wild world on sportsman-like conduct […]

July 14th, 2020, marks the fifth anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Agreement, often referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal (or simply the Deal) – the Deal that wasn’t.   It was yet another attempt at regime change. Of all the plans to control Iran beginning from Operation Ajax to Operation JCPOA and everything in between, the[Read More...]

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, May 2020. One new report from the UN agency expresses concern about Iran’s blocking access to certain sites and another report confirms the country’s increased uranium enrichment activities. DEAN CALMA/IAEA
VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency issued an alarming report on June 5, voicing “serious concern” over Iran’s refusal to allow the agency’s inspectors to investigate two sites where the country is suspected of having conducted undeclared nuclear activities in the past.