From Israel: Keeping Our Heads Screwed on Tight!!

Efforts to facilitate this meeting were made by Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, and we should not ignore the political orientation of these nations. According to some reports, they were pushing for that meeting to take place in Ankara, Turkey. As I write, I do not have clarity as to where it will take place.

The meeting may not be face-to-face but rather conducted via go-betweens.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-iran-ready-to-talk-with-mediators-organizing-meeting-in-ankara-report/

Senior officials from Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Turkey will join the talks, as will Jared Kushner.

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Iran has actually expressed an eagerness for negotiations. Its messages have been quite bellicose; but this is an indication not of strength, but the fear they harbor of a major attack by the US, which would do them enormous damage.

They also fear that a military attack might bring the demonstrators back into the streets in numbers that would bring down the regime. That regime is, by all indications, the weakest it has been since taking over Iran in 1979.

“In high-level meetings, officials told Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that public anger over last month’s crackdown, the bloodiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has reached a point where fear is no longer a deterrent…”

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-885365

Negotiations provide a means for Iran to stave off these threats or at least buy time.

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There are significant reasons for not negotiating with Iran.

The first is that this regime lies and cheats. We are talking about a jihadist regime operating from a religious ideology. Nothing as simple as a signed document will deter them from attempting to achieve their goals, which are to spread sharia law throughout the world, and to totally eliminate Israel because Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East is an affront to Allah.

See Yonoson Rosenblum on this. He cites the brilliant orientalist Bernard Lewis, z”l (pictured), who took the time to research Khomeini’s speeches.

https://mishpacha.com/the-mullahs-will-never-abandon-their-goal/

Bernard Lewis. Screengrab via Youtube

A negotiated settlement might delay the pursuit of their goals, but it will not stop them. The Iranian regime is without honor in the Western sense that we understand it: honor founded on the integrity of a negotiated settlement. For them, honor comes with advancing their goals by whatever means.

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The second reason not to negotiate with Iran concerns the issues that would be open for discussion. This matter is critical.

Iranian officials indicate they are open only to negotiations on development of nuclear weapons.

Speaking with CNN on Sunday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that he believed an agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear development could be reached quickly. He emphasized that talks would focus only on Iran’s nuclear program and not on curbing its ballistic missile program or support for proxy terror groups.

“Let’s not talk about impossible things,” he said, in response to a question on those matters by CNN. “And not lose the opportunity to achieve a fair and equitable deal to ensure no nuclear weapons.”

It should be understood that Iran has never conceded that it was working towards the development of a nuclear weapon. The claim, fallacious on the face of it, has always been that they were doing nuclear development for peaceful purposes.

The fact that they surreptitiously enriched uranium to a level not needed for peaceful purposes put the lie to this claim.

It also provides significant proof of the fact that agreements with them cannot be trusted: they exceeded the level of enrichment permitted by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015, negotiated by Obama.

https://www.inss.org.il/publication/irans-nuclear-violations-jcpoa-and-beyond/

Trump, understanding that this was a bad deal, withdrew from the Plan during his first term and reinstated sanctions on Iran.

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It is possible that the Iranians plan on handling these negotiations the same way they did in 2015: They would seek a deal that did not permit them to develop nuclear weapons but gave them the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Then quietly, over time, they would continue to pursue the goal of nuclear weapon development.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of the Iranian parliament, said on Monday that Iran is not open to negotiations regarding its nuclear activities or missile capabilities.

Nuclear activities? Boroujerdi refers to “peaceful nuclear knowledge”, which he says along with “missile and drone capabilities, are red lines of the Islamic Republic and are not open to negotiation.”

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-885324

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I share here an observation from Jonathan Tobin, editor of JNS (emphasis added):

“Whatever else was on his agenda or that of his voters, it is…true that the second Trump administration was not summoned into existence to re-enact the failed foreign policy of former President Barack Obama. And that’s the main thing for the president and his team to remember as they engage in negotiations this week with Iran.”

https://www.jns.org/trump-shouldnt-fall-into-the-iran-negotiations-trap/

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Trump does intend to make one bottom-line demand in addition to halting nuclear weapon development: there is to be no more killing of protesters.

But it would be terribly short-sighted to count even on this. Trump had boasted that he saved the lives of 800 protesters when he received a message from the regime that they had halted plans to execute demonstrators. But the regime went on to murder an incredible 35,000.

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Over the weekend, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir made a secret visit to Washington where he met with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine (pictured) and other top-level officials.

Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. By Eytan2009 – Own work, CC0, Wikipedia [Cropped]