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A photo released by Government Press Office shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he delivers a statement on April 3 "strongly opposing" the framework deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the U.S. to seek a better agreement with Iran over its nuclear weapons program, insisting that he's not trying to kill any deal, just "a bad deal."Netanyahu, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, argued that the current plan "leaves the preeminent terrorist state of our time with a vast nuclear infrastructure."He lamented that "not one centrifuge is destroyed" under the agreement.Netanyahu also warned that lifting sanctions on Tehran...

“Iran Agrees to Detailed Nuclear Outline,” The New York Times headline claimed on Friday. That found an echo in the Washington Post headline of the same day: “Iran agrees to nuclear restrictions in framework deal with world powers.” But the first thing to know about the highly hyped “historic achievement” that President Obama is trying to sell is that there has been no agreement on any of the fundamental issues that led to international concern about Iran’s secret nuclear activities and led to six mandatory resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and 13 years of diplomatic seesaw. All we...

Iran’s foreign minister says Tehran would be able to return to its current level of nuclear activities if the West withdraws from a pact that is to be finalized in June. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran has the power to take “corresponding action” and “will be able to return” its nuclear program to the same level if the other side fails to honor the agreement. …

Obama spiked the football in the Rose garden this week when he claimed that Iran and other world powers had agreed on an “historic” framework toward a final nuclear deal. He was doing his best channeling of Neville Chamberlain when he declared “I am convinced that if this framework leads to a final comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies and our world safer.” Of course, the key word in Barack’s victory speech is “if;” as in “…if Tehran proves that it is adhering to the agreement.” Yet nothing is in writing! Maybe The One has gone back...

The great pretense, the false suspense, the grand charade, the whole production number is about over. After months, after years of pretending that negotiations to keep Tehran's mullahs from getting their own nuclear weapon, the cover has been lifted and -- Ta-da! -- the grand finale begins with an all too familiar chorus: Peace in Our Time! Uncork the champaign, serve the caviar and get ready to applaud what should be a real hit. Call it "Munich: The Sequel." Back in 1938, the original production got a big reception from the waiting world, too, maybe bigger, because the audience could...

The logical flaw in the indictment of a looming “very bad” nuclear deal with Iran that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered before Congress this month was his claim that we could secure a “good deal” by calling Iran’s bluff and imposing tougher sanctions. The Iranian regime that Netanyahu described so vividly — violent, rapacious, devious and redolent with hatred for Israel and the United States — is bound to continue its quest for nuclear weapons by refusing any “good deal” or by cheating. This gives force to the Obama administration’s taunting rejoinder: What is Netanyahu’s alternative? War? But the...

US Secretary of State John Kerry bristled under comparisons of the recently announced deal with Iran to 1938's agreement between Britain's Neville Chamberlain and Germany's Adolf Hitler over the Sudetenland. Though Chamberlain proclaimed the agreement as assuring "peace for our time," World War II erupted only a year later. "There are just too many differences to make the comparison apt," Kerry claimed. "Hitler threatened to invade Czechoslovakia if his demands weren't met. Iran isn't threatening to invade anyone. Hitler had already invaded Austria. Iran hasn't invaded anyone. Iranian troops in Iraq are there by invitation to fight against ISIL." "There's...

Many U.S. Jewish leaders are unnerved both by the new Iran nuclear agreement and the public falling out between President Barack Obama and his Israeli counterpart, developments that are creating a rift in the durable alliance between Jews and the Democratic Party in the run-up to the 2016 elections. Worried that Iran might still develop a nuclear weapon despite the accord announced Thursday, the Jewish leaders say they feel torn between an Obama administration that has pressed hard for a deal and an Israeli government that has repeatedly warned that Iran is a grave threat to the Jewish state and...

'I don't read Farsi': State Department spokeswoman brushes off claims that Iran is misrepresenting terms of nuclear deal Within hours of a formal announcement that the United States, Iran and a group of five other world powers had brokered a deal keep Iran obtaining an atomic bomb in exchange for the relief of certain sanctions, cracks began to appear in the tediously negotiated preliminary agreement. The United States insisted in public statements and a fact sheet on the deal that sanctions on the country would be 'suspended' or 'phased' out over time after a final deal is inked while leaving...

Several top Democrats are voicing grave reservations over the Obama administration's emerging deal governing the future of Iran's nuclear program. Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) said they welcome a discussion on the framework agreement unveiled Thursday, but harbor deep doubts that the Iranians can be trusted to make good on their commitments. "I greet any deal with Iran with great skepticism given its deceptive history and ongoing destabilizing and dangerous activities," Deutch, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs subpanel on the Middle East, said in a statement. "I remain deeply concerned as to how a...

A State Department official dismissed a plea Friday from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Iran nuclear agreement include clear recognition of his nation's "right to exist," declaring negotiations are "only about the nuclear issue." State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, in a terse response to a question about Netanyahu's concerns, told reporters, "This is an agreement that is only about the nuclear issue" -- a comment that indicates the Obama administration is not looking to enshrine Israel's security into a final agreement. Harf, for her part, suggested the talks are complicated enough already. "This is an agreement that doesn't...

... the next president will have a hard time scrapping the accord if it is adopted in June as a final agreement, analysts say, because it would take years to reimpose whatever sanctions are waived as the result of these negotiations. ... On Thursday, negotiators announced the framework of a deal to ease economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for new restrictions on the country’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Republicans pounced on the agreement, the details of which remain fuzzy, to criticize Mr. Obama for, in their eyes, cutting a bad deal that will only accelerate the nuclear arms...

The emerging reports indicate the U.S. team, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, gradually backed down over the course of the talks as Iran's delegation dug in. The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former U.S. representatives at the discussions, claimed the White House had initially hoped to persuade Iran to dismantle much of the country's nuclear infrastructure when talks started in late 2013, only to be told categorically that Iran would not do so.

So the basic tradeoff achieved by Secretary of State John Kerry in the talks with Iran boils down to this: Iran has to watch its step for ten years. Then all bets are off. A year later, bombs away! By 2025, most of the sanctions will have been lifted and there will be no incentive for Iran to keep its deal to limit uranium enrichment. And, in any event, the limits will have been weakened after the ten year period. What other nation could be content for its principal adversary to reach a deal not to annihilate it until ten...

Friday on MSNBC’s “The Rundown with José Díaz-Balart,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) argued since the Iranians are already  “backing away from” the four pages put out yesterday by the White House, believing they would agree to a complex final deal with thousands of page in June would be difficult.Sherman said, “The key thing from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey is that they’re not saying that this will inspire them to develop their own nuclear program. One of the main benefits we want from this deal is to avoid the nuclear proliferation race in the Middle East that would start if people thought Iran...

"Everything about the so-called deal with Iran, including the reputations of the men who negotiated it, is a lie. It’s likely to be a deadly lie for millions of people who will die on account of it. The world should mark well everyone responsible for it."

The List: Obama's Three Hundred and Twenty-Third Week in OfficeNews and Notes:   Obama: 'By Hook or By Crook' I'm Going to Be a Successful President  4/2/2015It's 3am and nobody's there Iran Brags About Nuke Concessions Sanctions to be terminated, no nuke sites closed, research and development to continue Iran Accuses U.S. of Lying About New Nuke Agreement Says White House misleading Congress, American people with fact sheetObama Touts 'Historic' Iran Nuclear Deal Obama says 'no daylight' with Israel, while stressing this is 'the best option' and 'a good deal,' outlining its details.'Framework' for final deal reached at Iran nuclear talksBoehner: Iran Deal an...

Iranians See Victory, Hope for New Image in Nuclear Agreement Street celebrations in Tehran follow announcement By ARESU EQBALI and ASA FITCH April 2, 2015 Iranians greeted the news of an agreement with world powers on its nuclear program Thursday night with street celebrations and expressions of hope about their country’s political role and economic engagement with the rest of the world. Families drove along Valiasr Street in central Tehran honking, flashing headlights and playing loud music into the early hours of Friday. A group of young men blockaded one street and chanted “Freedom,...

  As the deadline for the end of negotiations has come and gone, an agreement has been reached. An agreement to keep talking, that is. Though we might yet be surprised, it's hard to imagine the US reaching a meaningful agreement with Iran regarding its nuclear ambitions. Have you noticed that pronouncing "nucular" is no longer a gaffe since George Bush is no longer President? Middle Eastern types tend not to make deals. Arab and Persian principles are and have long been built solidly on the shifting sands. They prefer the issue to the solution and Bill Clinton himself proved...

[snip] Kerry is a man who has lived most of his adult life in the public eye. It’s been a career of almosts and near misses—and fugitive moments of glory. He’s been grasping for the brass ring his entire life, it seems, determined to be a man of import and impact, to make his mark. But somehow it’s always eluded John Kerry. More doors are closed now than open, and Kerry has less than two years left in his job. [snip] America’s secretary of state—the “tireless, and I mean tireless," John Kerry, as President Obama put it in his Rose...