If this is correct, there are just four days left to save America and the world
Robert Malley, US special envoy for Iran
The air is currently loud with the sound of people prognosticating that the shattering events in Ukraine have shocked the west out of its previous torpor and forced it to realise that it needs to stand up to tyrants rather than appease and even profit from them.
Really?
A profoundly alarming thread has surfaced this evening on Twitter. It is written by Gabriel Noronha, a former Iran official at the US State Department.
Gabriel Noronha @GLNoronha
March 2nd 2022
967 Retweets1,640 Likes
The thread is about the activities of America’s Iran envoy Robert Malley in the current Vienna talks with Iran about a renewed nuclear deal. This is a lightly edited version of what Naronha writes:
1. My former career @StateDept, NSC, and EU colleagues are so concerned with the concessions being made by @RobMalley in Vienna that they’ve allowed me to publish some details of the coming deal in the hopes that Congress will act to stop the capitulation.
2. “What’s happening in Vienna is a total disaster” one warned. The entire negotiations have been filtered and “essentially run” by Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov. The concessions and other misguided policies have led three members of the U.S. negotiating team to leave.
3. This is a long and technical thread, but here’s what you should know: the deal being negotiated in Vienna is dangerous to our national security, it is illegal, it is illegitimate, and it in no way serves U.S. interests in either the short or long term.
4. Here’s why: Led by Rob Malley, the U.S. has promised to lift sanctions on some of the regime’s worst terrorists and torturers, leading officials in the regime’s WMD infrastructure, and is currently trying to lift sanctions on the IRGC itself. Let’s dive in.
5. First, Biden’s team is preparing to rescind the Supreme Leaders’ Office Executive Order (E.O. 13876) as soon as this coming Monday, and lift sanctions on nearly every one of the 112 people/entities sanctioned under it, even if they’re sanctioned under other legal authorities.
6. We sanctioned some of the worst people you can possibly imagine under this authority, like Mohsen Rezaei, who was involved in the 1994 AMIA bombing that killed 85 people in Argentina. He’ll be able to live free of sanctions next week if Malley proceeds.
7. Also under this action, the U.S. will lift sanctions on IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, who led IRGC forces in Lebanon and Syria when Hezbollah bombed the Marine compound in Beirut and killed 241 U.S. service members in 1983.
8. 8. Who else? Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Khamenei, who was charged in Argentina for homicide for the 1994 AMIA bombing and as one of the “ideological masterminds” behind the attack. He also helped prop up Assad’s brutality in Syria.
9. This would also lift sanctions on Khamenei’s personal slush funds known as “bonyads”, including Astan Quds Razavi and Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, which confiscated houses and billions from political dissidents and religious minorities to enrich Khamenei and his goons.
10. Sanctions also to be lifted on Bonyad Mostazafan, a massive conglomerate that systematically confiscated property from Jews and Bahai’s after 1979. It is enmeshed with the IRGC and is a corruption network used to enrich top Iranian terrorists.
11. It’s important to note that the Supreme Leaders Office EO was not at all related to Iran’s nuclear program, and the removal of these sanctions under a so-called nuclear deal is a ridiculous farce. The State Department’s lawyers know better but were forced into this by Malley.
12. Our lawyers were clear when we released this EO: it was a response to actions by Iran & its proxies to destabilize the Middle East, promote international terrorism, advance Iran’s ballistic missile program, & Iran’s attack against U.S. military assets + civilian vehicles.
13. There’s much more: sanctions will be lifted on huge swaths of the regime’s economic and financial arms (close to 40 major entities) that support the Iranian terror, repression, and WMD infrastructure and were sanctioned under those legal authorities.
14. For example, they are lifting sanctions on economic arms of the Mehr Eqtesad network and Bonyad Taavon Basij which directly funds the Basij Resistance Force that recruits and trains child soldiers forced into combat.
15. The U.S. is not lifting sanctions on the Basij (responsible for killing thousands of Iranian protesters) itself, because the Iranians didn’t care – they just wanted sanctions on the funding mechanisms lifted because that’s what actually matters. Malley obliged.
16. These sanctions are also not related to Iran’s nuclear program, but we’re about to lift sanctions on them anyways. These are not “inconsistent with the JCPOA” as Blinken and Malley claim – they targeted the institutions that kill thousands of innocent Iranians and Arabs.
17. More: Every individual and entity that was de-sanctioned under the JCPOA’s Annex II Attachment 3 will have all sanctions stripped again, EVEN THOUGH close to 100 of them were later sanctioned for terrorism, human rights violations, and participation in Iran’s WMD activities.
18. Take Ghavamin Bank for example. It was sanctioned under human rights authorities in November 2018 for involvement supporting the Iranian Law Enforcement Forces that tortured and drowned Afghans. That won’t matter anymore – they’ll be free from sanctions.
19. Same for Sepah Bank, sanctioned in 2007 as “the financial linchpin of Iran’s missile procurement network.” That first sanction was lifted by the JCPOA, but Sepah was later sanctioned for their support of the Iranian Ministry of Defense. Now, both sanctions would be lifted.
20. The JCPOA lifted sanctions on the Attachment 3 list under the guise that they were nuclear-related sanctions. But now, Malley and co. are effectively trying to codify their permanent exemption from sanctions even if they are complicit in gross violations of human rights.
21. This is akin to criminal prosecution. The Attachment 3 lists were all previously indicted for nuclear “crimes”. But a bunch of them later committed human rights and terrorism “crimes” and were sanctioned accordingly. But now Malley is giving them a full-on pardon.
22. Sanctions will also be lifted on the Central Bank of Iran and the National Development Fund, which were sanctioned under counterterrorism authorities for providing billions of dollars to the IRGC, the Qods Force, and Hizballah. These organizations STILL fund terrorism.
23. The CBI and NDF were sanctioned after Iran brazenly attacked Saudi Arabia in September 2019 in the attacks on Saudi Aramco in an act of war. Again, these sanctions are not related to Iran’s nuclear program – they are about terrorism.
24. Also to be lifted: sanctions on the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) that fund the Qods Force, responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians and for the death of at least 603 Americans in Iraq from 2003-2011.
25. NIOC and NITC were sanctioned under counterterrorism authorities approved by interagency career lawyers, including from DOJ and Treasury. Why? Because they were involved in the funding of terrorism. They never stopped that activity, but sanctions are still getting lifted.
26. The @StateDept has no legal basis to rescind the sanctions on the Central Bank, NDF, NIOC or NITC as they still continue to support terrorism. To remove those sanctions, you typically have to prove they aren’t supporting terror. They can’t. In other words, this is all illegal.
27. Speaking of lawyers, State’s lawyers are said to be working on “very creative” ways to try and bypass Congress’ right to review (or even see the deal) under INARA. The political appointees working this deal are said to strongly distain Congress and view them as a nuisance.
28. Perhaps most troubling is Malley’s attempt to remove sanctions on the IRGC. Malley was initially rebuffed by the interagency after he tried to get them to let him offer the removal of IRGC sanctions to the Iranians. That hasn’t stopped him.
29. Malley has proposed to the Iranians that the U.S. will remove the IRGC from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list & sanctions if the Iranians simply promise to talk to the United States in new negotiations about their “regional activity” (aka terrorism).
30. This is one of the last issues still on the table in Vienna. The Iranians apparently have not accepted Malley’s offer, because they want an unconditional removal of the IRGC’s FTO designation. But even if the Iranians caved, we’d still be removing the IRGC sanctions!
31. Over the past four decades, the IRGC has plotted and carried out terrorist attacks in 35 countries, and they continue to do so today. As Pompeo disclosed last year, they are currently providing safe haven and logistical support for Al-Qaeda in Iran.
32. For all these concessions, we haven’t gotten anything at all from the Iranians. The JCPOA’s sunsets have not been extended at all. Some restrictions, like the UN arms embargo, have already expired. All the meaningful restrictions will expire in the next 9 years.
33. Iran won’t make any concessions on its ballistic missile activity, its terrorist activity and support for proxy groups, or taking further hostages from the United States and other countries. But it will get money anyways – lots and lots of money.
34. Iran is set to get a massive windfall in access to cash: the latest estimate is $90 billion in foreign exchange reserves, and then $50-55 billion in extra revenue each year from higher oil/petrochemical exports, with no restrictions on where it’ll be spent.
35. My sources confirm @ReutersIran’s reporting that Malley is imminently set to release $7 billion in funds frozen in South Korean banks as the first part of the deal in a massive hostage payment to get four Americans — and possibly some British citizens — out of jail in Iran.
36. I’m glad that we’ll have Americans coming home — they are innocent victims. But make no mistake: Biden’s payment will only supercharge Iran’s hostage-taking industry. More Americans will land in Evin prison soon. This is a massive unforced error.
37. Malley has designed this process to bypass Congress from having any say. How? Because the Iranian banks Malley is lifting sanctions on as soon as Monday will be able to access and repatriate tens of billions of $$ immediately — before Congress can vote on any deal.
38. Even if Malley later submitted a deal to congress, the bilk of the damage would already be done — Iran will have control of billions and the US will have no more leverage. This is pure diplomatic malpractice, and congress needs to investigate this attempted fait accompli.
39. The Biden administration is claiming that they are going back to the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran] and therefore do not need to submit the deal to Congress under the 2015 INARA law. That’s not true — this deal is not the JCPOA. It is much, much worse.
40. The degree of capitulation happening here is staggering —especially for people like me who worked in the technical trenches of this stuff for years, That’s why these non-partisan career staffers are coming out the woodwork and desperately asking for oversight from Congress.
If this is correct, then under cover of the Ukraine crisis an act of supreme treachery is being perpetrated by the Biden administration against America and the west in empowering the Iranian regime — an enemy of civilisation that has been at war against America, Israel and the west since it came to power in 1979.
The west now knows it has been sleepwalking over Putin’s Russia. The time for it to wake up from its similar trance over Iran — and over the Biden administration’s astonishing desperation to give the Iranian regime everything it wants — has almost expired. If Naronha’s information is true, it would seem Congress has just four days left to save America and the world.
For the Biden’ s Adm, what matters most is the enemy from within.
@peloni
I looked it up:
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=why+don%27t+americans+negotiate+directly+with+Iran&ia=web
Apparently, Iran refuses to negotiate directly with the Americans.
There is some interesting stuff in The Washington Post by Jason Rezaian.
I think this leak is damage control and convenient dumping on the Russians because of the Ukrainian situation to make it sound like the “evil Russian” took over the negotiations and whatever happened had nothing to do with us.
I don’t know how realistic it is to think that the US has lost control over the negotiations and just let the Russian envoy work on it because the US delegation was too trusting and naive.
@Ber
Very well described!
Gangsterism. I think now it is better to think of the world as the playground for psychopathic oligarchs, cartels and gangsters. It matters not whether the come from the East or the West. They all have in common their own personal interests to the exclusion of the common people anywhere. Ukraine was the playground for the Obama, Biden, Clinton oligarchs after they fomented their coup against the Russia oriented oligarchs. Anyone who believes the Zelensky was independently elected and is in control of Ukraine might want to take a whiff of smelling salts. Ukraine is a failed state rife with all kinds of nefarious activity not least of which is human trafficking, money laundering (for whichever gangsters happen to be in charge at the moment). The Western gangsters AKA politicians wanted Ukraine for their resources, especially wheat and the oil pipelines that cross its territory from Russia. But they pushed the bear too far and are now being thrown out in favour, once again, of the Russian gangsters led by Putin. As Hobbes said: The powerful will do what they will and the weak will suffer what we must. Le plus ça change le plus ça reste la meme chose. The more things change the more they stay the same.
@Reader
To be honest, I am not sure where I read it – it wasn’t recent, but here is a reference to it from Front Page in Jan.:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/26/russia-iran-nuclear-negotiator/
This was a little more than a month ago, so perhaps it has changed, but it doesn’t sound like it from Noronha’s report.
@peloni
Where did you see that Ulyanov was acting as a mediator?
And why wouldn’t Iranians meet directly with Americans?
I couldn’t find it on Twitter.
There is also a Chinese guy there.
@Reader
This much of this report is absolutely accurate – the US and Iranians are not meeting with eachother, but rather, Ulyanov is acting as a mediator between the two sides. When negotiations broke down in Dec. Ulyanov was brought in to restart negotiations and has been very active on Twitter with constant updates to the proceedings. He has not written of any of the details shared by Noronha, but that is not proof that this report is not accurate. Furthermore, the fact that Ulyanov has not cited and refuted the statement by Noronha, actually is significant, I believe. Ulyanov is very active on twitter as you can see by perusing his acct here:
https://twitter.com/Amb_Ulyanov
In anycase, I hope you are correct. I fear you are not.
@peloni
You know, I thought about it and it looks suspicious to me.
They are attacking Russia now continuously and from every direction, there are even reports of attacks on the Russians abroad, including on Russian children, they are sanctioning the athletes, musicians, cats(!), and here we are told that the Vienna negotiations are “essentially run” by a Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov (BTW, Ulyanov is the real last name of Lenin – an interesting coincidence)!!!
I suspect that it is fake news designed to smear Russia from yet another angle.
Either the” evil Russian” is forcing the weak Americans to buckle under and accept these conditions, or it is another Russiagate, this time against Biden.
This is devastating! Whatever you believe about the game being played out between Putin and Ukraine, the horrifying issues raised in Melanie’s article are much worse, more relevant and beyond any possible rationale. They are, in fact, directly related to the issues raised in Ted’s “The Pot Is Calling The Kettle Black” article. Corruption has at its root a toxic and insidious aspect that undermines even the most stable of organizations, but it does so under a cloud of duplicity and veil of normalcy, masking the blight and rot that it breeds from within. The title of Melanie’s article is quite appropriately named. The consequences of this betrayal of both the American people and the world at large will be without parallel and we will each live to see the unhappy consequences of this next capitulation by the usurped US govt.
@Ted Belman
The Anglo politicians are the cunningest in the world (it is not Biden, the man couldn’t pull it off by himself even if he wanted to, it’s the same ruling clique with the head that changes every now and then).
The way it works, they create situations and work out multiple outcomes with every outcome somehow suitable to their purpose but hurting the “enemy”.
In WWI, I think, the British parliamentarians wanted to discuss something among themselves and they didn’t want it to attract the public’s attention.
They riled up the people about an “imminent attack” and got them busy digging trenches in the public parks thus leaving the politicians to discuss their ideas in secret.
Once BK gets an idea in his head, it’s THE END.
And it has nothing to do with reality.
For some reason, Bear is all worked up about Putin and never once agreed with me about Biden. He is the real threat.
Ted Cruz on Fox News just accused Biden for setting the stage for Putin’s invasion. So ,many people understand this and have written about it, yet Bear accuses me of being a Putin lover.