ZOA: Pres. Obama Apparently Lied To American Public

NEW YORK, August 12, 2015 — A report from the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) has apparently brought to light the existence of a secret letter revealing that the Obama Administration secretly approached the Iranian leadership in 2011, offering to recognize Iran’s alleged right to uranium enrichment — a right that does not exist under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which Iran signed — in return for Iran negotiating a resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue.

If true, this means that President Barack Obama brazenly lied to the American public when his Administration continued stating, after that date, that the U.S. demand an end to Iranian uranium enrichment activities.

Thus, when, on April 7, 2012, President Obama’s National Security Council spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said that “Our position is clear: Iran must live up to its international obligations, including full suspension of uranium enrichment as required by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” he was deceiving the American people.

These secret negotiations also contradict President Obama’s words on July 14, 2015, when he announced the nuclear deal signed with Iran saying that the U.S. had just spent “two years of negotiations” with Iran, when, in fact, it appears the Obama Administration began negotiations as early as 2011, not in 2013 as indicated in his speech.

According to MEMRI, which translated portions of various statements by several senior Iranian leaders in the Iranian media (the newspapers Tasnim and Iranand the websites Leader.ir, Irannuc.ir), the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a June 23, 2015 speech that the Obama Administration made the approach in 2011 through Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, who told the Iranians that the Americans said, “We want to solve the nuclear issue and lift sanctions within six months, while recognizing Iran as a nuclear power.”

Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam, an advisor to Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, specified that the 2011 letter came from then-Senator John Kerry,  who was at that time head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but who was also acting as an unofficial envoy on Iran for President Obama. Iranian vice president and top negotiator, Ali Akbar Salehi, said that Secretary Kerry, while still a senator, had been appointed by President Barack Obama to handle the nuclear contacts with Iran.

Various senior Iranian figures from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei down have disclosed that a 2011 letter from now-Secretary of State Kerry was sent to the Iranians via Oman, stating that the U.S. was offering to recognize Iran’s rights regarding the nuclear fuel enrichment cycle in return for Iran sitting down and negotiating a resolution of the nuclear issue. This was followed by secret meetings of Iranian and U.S. officials and Iran issuing four demands, including that the U.S. recognize Iran’s right to uranium enrichment; that the deal must close the Iranian nuclear dossier; and that the issue of the possible military dimensions of Iran’s past nuclear activities be “resolved.”

Before the 2013 Iranian presidential elections, according to Iranian Vice President,and head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, three rounds of talks took place in Oman, and at these talks the Americans officially recognized Iran’s right to enrich uranium (which President Obama had offered to do in 2011) (‘Iranian Senior Officials Disclose Confidential Details From Nuclear Negotiations: Already In 2011 We Received Letter From U.S. Administration Recognizing Iran’s Right To Enrich Uranium,’ MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6131, August 10, 2015).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “This report is apparently true and if so, the conclusion is inescapable — President Obama brazenly lied and knowingly misled the American public on this vital matter.

“The accounts of this secret diplomacy provided by MEMRI are so detailed that they lend credence to the report.

“If the accounts are true, then, in a sense, the public negotiations since 2013 have been a charade. When these public negotiations commenced in 2013, President Obama had already agreed to Iran’s ‘right’ to uranium enrichment.

“Not only that, but he was deceiving American allies regarding America’s resolve to stop Iranian enrichment, not least America’s most reliable ally in the Middle East, Israel.

“No country is subject to such great, indeed existential, danger from Iran as America’s greatest ally, Israel, yet it was not consulted, it was kept in the dark.

“Even without this new revelation, we have already learned that we are unable to trust President Obama’s word when it comes to Iran. He promised to do many things, yet, with the Iran nuclear deal signed last month in Vienna, he didn’t fulfill a single one of them, including:

“President Obama’s demand that Iran dismantle its centrifuges! — dropped.

“His demand that Iran shutter its plutonium facility at Arak! — dropped.

“His demand that Iran shutter its underground nuclear facility at Fordow! — dropped.

“His demand that Iran accept ‘anywhere, anytime’ inspections — free, unfettered and unannounced inspections of all suspected nuclear sites! — dropped.

“His demand that Iran fully account for the military dimensions of its past clandestine nuclear research and development programs! — dropped.

“His insistence that non-nuclear sanctions imposed on Iran for its role in international terrorism and abuses of human rights remain firmly in place! — dropped.

“His forcefully proclaiming that he would not deal in the nuclear agreement with any non-nuclear issues, like human rights abuses, the hanging of gays, releasing four innocent Americans from Iranian prisons, terrorism! — yet agreed to lift bans on Iran’s purchasing conventional weapons and missiles several years down the line.

“In light of all these apparent lies and deceptions — most recently falsely claiming in his speech at the American University that this nuclear deal ‘permanently’ prevents Iran develop nuclear weapons — how can we trust anything President Obama or Secretary Kerry say about this Iran deal, especially since we know nothing of the secret side deals made, which Secretary Kerry says he hasn’t even read.

“How could they have concluded a final deal with Iran when Secretary Kerry says he hasn’t even read the secret annexes?

“President Obama and Secretary Kerry have lost all credibility on this issue.”

This article was published by ZOA and may be found here.