iran deal - Page 13

GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee responded to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s previous attack over Huckabee’s characterization of President Obama’s Iran deal.

Former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has joined the chorus of critics responding to former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s (R-AR) use of a Holocause reference regarding the Iran nuclear deal, saying that Huckabee’s “inflammatory rhetoric” was getting in the way of finding an actual solution.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) promised in 2013 “that together, Democrats and Republicans are gonna work to see that we don’t let up on these sanctions, as this agreement did, until Iran gives up not only all nuclear weapons, but all nuclear weapon capability, all enriched uranium, all the centrifuges, and all the heavy water reactors at Arak.”

The Iran deal, by Schumer’s own standards, is a failure. In May, at a dinner for Agudath Israel, an Orthodox Jewish group that lobbies for religious concerns, Schumer laid out “five things we have to be very, very careful about” in the emerging deal. The Iran deal fails four of five.

Hundreds of San Diegans gathered at Balboa Park on Sunday to protest against a nuclear deal with Iran and urge Congress to vote against it.

On July 22, Breitbart News was the first to point out that the states have the power to block significant portions of the Iran deal, whether or not it passes Congress. That is because most states have enacted legislation divesting from Iran, and some, like New York, have even harsher legislation that prevents the state from doing business with the regime or with companies that do so. In an op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, constitutional lawyers David B. Rivkin and Lee A. Casey agree: the states are “free to impose their own Iran-related sanctions.”

A crowd of well over 1,000 gathered outside the Federal Building in West Los Angeles to demand that Congress vote “no” on the nuclear deal with Iran–and to override President Barack Obama’s anticipated veto. The majority of participants were from the local Jewish community, but there was also a significant Christian presence, as well as participation from Muslims opposed to the Iranian regime.

When he was sworn in as Secretary of State, John Kerry took a solemn oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Several street art posters appeared in West Los Angeles ahead of a rally Sunday against the new Iran nuclear deal. The posters, apparently by conservative guerilla artist Sabo, The posters target the new Iran deal, though there are some that take on the latest Planned Parenthood scandal, or the Obama administration in general.

On his visit to Israel in March 2013, President Barack Obama backed Israel’s right to use force to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb.

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin told attendees at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Thursday morning in San Diego that if elected President in 2016, he would cancel the nuclear deal with Iran on day one in office. He also said that Planned Parenthood should be defunded for its role in benefiting from abortions.

President Barack Obama is preparing to release convicted Israeli spy and former U.S. naval intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pollard has served nearly three decades of an unusually harsh life sentence, after being arrested in 1985.

Cruz’s speech stemmed from how McConnell—despite telling the entire GOP conference there was no such secret deal with the Democrats during the Obamatrade process to later bring up Ex-Im reauthorization—actually did cut a deal with Democrats, specifically Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).

In the immediate aftermath of the Iran deal, and unanimous approval by the UN Security Council, China has reportedly committed to build two nuclear power plants in Iran, according to an Iranian news source relayed via the Nikkei Asian Review and Politico Europe.

International inspectors failed to stop Syria from stockpiling chemical weapons, in spite of an international agreement in 2013, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal on Friday. International inspectors were skeptical of Syria’s claims to have disposed of its stockpiles, but were afraid that reporting violations would destroy the overall deal: “Members of the inspection team didn’t push for answers, worried that it would compromise their primary objective of getting the regime to surrender the 1,300 tons of chemicals it admitted to having.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest took a swipe at a rally held by Concerned Women for America on Thursday in Lafayette Park, according to a press release from the organization.

A new poll sponsored by the Los Angeles Jewish Journal reveals that a strong plurality of American Jews support the Iran nuclear deal, 49% to 31%. That compares to much smaller support among Americans in general, who split 28% to 24% for the deal.

Democrats in both the House and Senate – during Congressional hearings Thursday – referenced GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, attempting to take jabs at the GOP frontrunner.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee hosted experts on the Middle East on Thursday to examine the new Iran deal and its consequences for U.S. national security and foreign policy. Committee chair Ed Royce (R-CA) put the question to expert witnesses and fellow representatives: “[A]re temporary constraints on Iran’s nuclear program worth the price of permanent sanctions relief?”

Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, and Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew are making the rounds on Capitol Hill in an effort to sell the Iran deal. Their appearance at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday did not go well, as the three men struggled to answer basic questions and objections to the substance of the deal, as well as the process through which it had been rushed to the UN Security Council before coming to Congress. There were several new revelations at the hearing. Here are the 5 most important.

Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) jabbed at the administration, adding that while Kerry has said Congress would have the ability to weigh in on the final deal, Congress now realizes it would be eight years from now – because that is the time specified in the agreement. “It was either this deal or war,” Corker mocked about not being able to question or oppose the deal.

Journalist Ari Shavit is one of Israel’s most celebrated left-wing voices. He is celebrated in the United States as a voice for political change in Israel and an advocate for concessions to the Palestinians. His recent memoir, My Promised Land: The Triumph

If the Iran deal were any good, the Obama administration would not have to lie about it. Yet Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz continue to do just that. The latest example is a joint op-ed in the Washington Post, in which the Laurel and Hardy of American diplomacy attempt to defend the nuclear deal using a series of half-truths and blatant lies that is worth decoding concisely, in full.

Politifact is at it again. The so-called fact-checking authority has given Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) a “false” rating for his claim that President Barack Obama promised to “dismantle Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for dismantling the sanctions” at the outset of negotiations. However, it is Politifact that has its facts wrong.

White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice admitted the existence of two secret “side deals” between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to accompany the main Iran nuclear deal agreed last week between Iran and the P5+1 powers (U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China).

Breitbart News is carrying the livestream of the Stop Iran Rally from Times Square in New York City today beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.

The Obama administration has sent the Iran nuclear deal to Congress for a 60-day review provided by the Corker bill. However, President Barack Obama has pre-empted Congress by going to the UN Security Council first, which has already voted to end international sanctions and accept the deal. Furthermore, even if Congress rejects the deal, it will struggle to muster a two-thirds majority to override the president’s veto. There is one effective way, however, that the Iran deal can be rejected: states and local governments can refuse to comply with it.

“I think it’s an outrage, I think it’s done by people of gross incompetence, I think it’s a tremendous win for Iran and many of our enemies and I think it’s something that shouldn’t be allowed,” Trump said in a phone interview that came before his spat with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) escalated. “It’s outrageous that a deal like this is going forward and can be allowed to go forward. With proper negotiators we could have had a great deal.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that he is “disturbed” by the tone set by Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei in his speech over the weekend to commemorate the end of Ramadan, an Islamic holy month. In his address, the despotic ruler of the Islamic Republic called for the destruction of the state of Israel and asked fellow Muslims to resist the wishes of the “arrogant” world powers.

On Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) delivered a strident speech on the Senate floor supporting the Iran nuclear deal. The speech is very important, for three reasons. First, Durbin is one of the Senate’s most powerful Democrats. Second, Durbin owes

President Barack Obama boasted last week that his administration forced Iran to accept an eight-year delay in the lifting of ballistic missile sanctions, when Iran wanted those restrictions canceled immediately. (Never mind that Iran made the demand at the last minute, raising a “non-nuclear” issue of the sort Obama says the U.S. could not make with regard to American captives.) Now, Obama’s brag turns out to have been a lie. There are no ballistic missile restrictions in the deal: Iran is merely “called upon” to refrain, voluntarily, from such technology.

Secretary of State John Kerry told Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya television on Monday that Iran’s repeated threats to the United States in the aftermath of the Iran nuclear deal were “very disturbing,” but that they did not necessarily mean that Iran intended to attack America. He also suggested that despite the $150 billion in sanctions relief that Iran will receive, the Arab states of the Gulf region can unite to resist Iran.

The United Nations Security Council voted 15-0 on Monday to pass Resolution 2231, which endorses the Iran nuclear deal–“the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] signed in Vienna by the five permanent members of the Council, plus Germany, the European Union and Iran.” However, there are already sharp disagreements between Iran and the rest of the world as to what that deal actually means.

While en route to Israel to assuage concerns about the recently-struck Iran nuclear deal, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told reporters that the deal does not remove the military option as a potential strategy for the U.S. to remove Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Iran’s parliament, the Islamic Constituent Assembly, or Majlis, holds the power to revise or delay key parts of the nuclear deal with Iran–even as President Barack Obama and world powers seek a UN Security Council resolution before the U.S. Congress can review the deal.

In sum: as a purely nuclear deal, the Iran agreement is very weak but debatable, depending on whether you believe it can be enforced. The non-nuclear part of the deal, however, concerning the arms and ballistic missile provisions, is a complete disaster.