Obama Silent as Iran Ridicules the US and Lies to Him - It Is Time for America to Speak

While Iran creates a sideshow by seizing a commercial vessel --- While Iran sends dozens of Houthi fighters to their deaths in clashes with Saudi forces on Yemen's northern border with Saudi Arabia --- While US Secretary of State John Kerry tells the first world nuclear disarmament conference in five years that a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran is “closer than ever” but that the work is far from over --- And while Zarif told the conference on Tuesday that the Middle East should be free of nuclear weapons --- Here is what's going on in the real world. ~~~~~ The head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, warned the nuclear disarmament conference that his agency : "is not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.” Amano and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as well as Japan and South Korea, also expressed concern about North Korea’s nuclear program and the lack of talks to address it. Kerry - in a moment of apparent mental lapse about Iran - called North Korea “the most glaring example” of a country ignoring global obligations about disarmament and - again apparently out of touch with reality - Kerry said the US continues working with partners to resume talks, but only if Pyongyang shows it is "serious." It was, as reported by the Middle East Monitor, Amano who focused on Iran, saying on April 28th of the IAEA : "We cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities." Amano said there have been important developments concerning safeguards implementation in Iran since Novrmber 2013 when it and the IAEA signed a Framework for Cooperation Agreement, under which Iran agreed to cooperate to resolve all present and past issues. Amano stressed the IAEA will do everything to clarify if Iran's nuclear activities or material have possible military dimensions, if Iran will cooperate : "Implementation by Iran of the additional protocol would enable the agency to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in the country." Amano stressed the IAEA's continuing essential role, including verifying nuclear-related measures under any final agreement which "we all hope will be reached between Iran and the six countries." ~~~~~ But, Iran has another agenda. Today, many media networks report that on April 20, Great Britain informed the UN sanctions panel of recent attempts by Iran to buy uranium enrichment technology using two Iranian blacklisted companies. Yahoo News and Jerusalemonline provide details of the confidential document obtained by Reuters that suggests the attempted procurement violates international laws. According to the report presented before the sanctions panel while it was meeting to examine Iran's reactions to current sanctions, Britain was informed by its intelligence agencies of an Iranian nuclear procurement network buying nuclear technology through the Iranian electricity company, KEC, and the Iranian technology institute, TESA, both of which are under sanctions. Iran, under sanctions for a decade, has a history of operating illegal nuclear purchase networks using foreign companies or other illegal methods. These procurements have enabled Iran to substantially develop its nuclear plan despite aggressive international efforts to curtail it. ~~~~~ Yahoo quotes the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security describing the Teheran-based Kalay Electric Company (KEC) as being "Iran's primary centrifuge research and development site in the late 1990s and early 2000s, until Iran moved operations to the Natanz site in 2002." The institute said KEC was private until being bought by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. "The name 'Kalaye Electric' means 'electric goods,' implying that Iran kept the original name to help disguise the true purpose of the facility," the institute wrote. It added that when the IAEA asked to inspect the site in 2003, Iran said it was a watch factory that also made a few centrifuge components. In 2011, the US Treasury Department said the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company "plays a crucial role in Iran's uranium enrichment nuclear program, being involved in producing IR-1 centrifuges, the type of centrifuge Iran has used to enrich uranium and has used in facilities belonging to Kalaye Electric Company." ~~~~~ US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters yesterday : "We remain concerned about their procurement, [about] taken steps to designate entities for procurement in the recent past." She said the US has ongoing discussions with the UN about the issue. ~~~~~ The news of the British warning to the UN panel comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and Secretary of State John Kerry met in New York Monday for the first time since the Lausanne negotiations. Zarif said in New York on Wednesday that "wording problems that pertain to all issues" still need to be worked out. He said Iran and world powers would meet Thursday to start work on the elements of a draft agreement, with meetings starting Monday in Europe to finalize all its elements. ~~~~~ But that isn't all Zarif said in New York. In a speech described by Bloomberg News as "blustery and self-righteous," the Iranian Foreign Minister told a New York University audience Wednesday that if Iran and the West sign a deal, all sanctions will be lifted very quickly and there is nothing the US Congress can do to stop it. Zarif said President Obama would be compelled to stop enforcing sanctions days after a nuclear agreement was signed and would have to lift congressional sanctions on Iran within weeks, no matter what Congress has to say about it. He also said that any future President, even a Republican, would be compelled to honor the agreement. Bloomberg said Zarif also "took several shots at the US Senate," while it is debating amendments to a bill to slow the lifting of sanctions against Iran and give Congress an oversight role on the deal. Zarif said : “As a foreign government, I only deal with the US government. I do not deal with Congress. The responsibility of bringing that into line falls on the shoulders of the President of the United States. That’s the person with whom we are making an agreement.” Zarif said that quickly after a signed agreement, the UN Security Council would pass a resolution lifting all UN sanctions and requiring Obama to stop enforcing all US sanctions immediately. “He will have to stop implementing all the economic and financial sanctions....However he does it, that’s his problem,” Zarif went further : “The resolution will endorse the agreement, will terminate all previous resolutions including all sanctions, will set in place the termination of EU sanctions and the cessation of applications of all US sanctions.” The US would have to accept this resolution “whether Senator Cotton likes it or not,” Zarif said, taunting Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who drafted an open letter to Iran's leaders saying the next President and Congress could undo any Iranian agreement President Obama makes. "The American President is bound by international law, whether they like it or not. And international law requires the United States live up to any agreement this government enters into,” he said. “You know that, maybe Senator Cotton doesn’t.” Zarif also criticized the Senate effort to pass Senator Bob Corker's bill delaying the lifting of sanctions by several weeks while Congress reviews any deal. Zarif said the US will pay if Congress interferes, threatening : “If the US Senate wants to send a message to the rest of the world that all of these agreements that the United States has signed are invalid, then you will have chaos in your bilateral relations, although you are welcome to do it,” he said. Concerning the re-instatement of sanctions if Iran fails to adhere to the agreement, Zarif insisted that Obama would not be able to “snap back” sanctions after they are lifted, as the White House has repeatedly claimed. And he accused the US government of violating the interim agreement, including the Treasury Department's adding sanctions on Iranians that were not related to the nuclear program. "If people are worrying about snapback, they should be worrying about the US violating its obligations and us snapping back,” he said. “That is a point the United States should be seriously concerned about. This is not a game.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, how can Congress and the American people stand idly by while the President allows himself, his office and the United States to be ridiculed and lied to by a universally despised second rate terrorist regime. If President Obama has no pride, it is time for America to show its mettle by rejecting his lapdog role with Iran and demanding an immediate end to his dangerous adventure. There is a Constitution. Use it.