An Israeli flag has been added to the line of flags fluttering outside the CERN Globe of Science and Innovation in Geneva, following Israel’s official welcoming as the 21st member state of the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Israel is the first new member of the organization since 1999. Israel has been an observer at CERN since 1991.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei put a wrinkle in his country’s “charm offensive” on Sunday, saying Israel was an “illegitimate and bastard regime.”
His comments, posted on his Twitter account, came just a few days before a second round of talks in Geneva between his nuclear negotiators and the P5+1, made up of the US, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday held a series of interviews with European media outlets with the aim of convincing EU countries not to lift Iran sanctions.
From his office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu spoke to leading media outlets including France’s Le Monde, the British Financial Times, Germany’s ARD, French television channelTV24 and Britain’s Sky News.
“No deal is better than a bad deal, and a bad deal would be a partial agreement which lifts sanctions off Iran and leaves them with the ability to enrich uranium or to continue work on their heavy water plutonium, which is what is needed to produce nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told The Financial Times.
“Don’t give up now, finish the job, let it take effect,” Netanyahu said. “Don’t give up now, and don’t say later that I didn’t warn you.”
Powerful words, but will they resonate?
Iran will reportedly offer to stop enriching uranium to levels of 20% purity in upcoming talks with world powers in Geneva, as well as offer to open the country’s nuclear facilities to more intrusive international inspections,The Wall Street Journalcited officials as saying on Tuesday.
The Islamic Republic is also considering offering to close the underground uranium-enrichment facility near Qom, according to the report.
In return for meeting the key demand of the P5+1 group, Tehran was reportedly set to ask the US and EU to start easing economic sanctions…
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WASHINGTON — Illinois Senator Mark Kirk criticized the Senate for postponing a new round of Iran sanctions, saying on Wednesday the move would aid in a “European appeasement policy.”
“The Senate should not aid and abet a European appeasement policy by softening our sanctions while the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism races toward a nuclear weapons capability,” Kirk said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed in response to a Reuters report about how the Senate Banking Committee is delaying a new set of Sanctions until after Geneva talks later this month.
“The Senate should not aid and abet a European appeasement policy by softening our sanctions while the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism races toward a nuclear weapons capability,” (http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/republican-senator-delaying-iran-sanctions-is-appeasement)
Senator Kirk is right, and the signal being sent by the Senate is extremely regrettable. ZOA has been very clear that sanctions are not the ultimate solution to the problem of Iran. They have been effective at penalizing the Mullahs’ regime, but virtually all experts agree that Iran has already decided to move forward with their nuclear ambitions even in the face of sanctions. The only thing that might stop the nuclear program is a credible threat of force. The force itself would be a significant blow to the regime, but possibly even more significant to the unpopular clique running Iran is the reaction of the people of Iran to a significant attack. According to the regime itself, they might be risking their entire revolution once bombs begin to fall on their nuclear facilities.
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Iran and the US want a deal, and quick.
Iran is under economic pressure because of the sanctions and both would like to prevent an Israeli attack. The problem is that the best Tehran is likely to offer will likely not be good enough for Israel, because of the worry that Iran would still be able to go nuclear at a time of its choosing.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that he supports President Hassan Rouhani’s latest outreach efforts, though he has reservations, seeming to be hedging his position just in case he wants to pull the plug later.