A draft resolution circulated by the US at the UN Security Council to endorse the recent Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding Iran’s renegade nuclear program will likely come up for a vote on Monday. Among other things, the plan calls for UN sanctions on Iran’s purchase of conventional weapons and ballistic missile components to expire in five and eight years, respectively. Opposition to the deal was expressed all week in multiple media appearances by officials from Israel and the Sunni Arab countries, with little apparent effect on the intentions and attitudes of the Obama Administration or the governments of the other P5+1 nuclear powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany.) Meanwhile, a senior member of the US negotiating team admitted on Thursday that a key part of the assurances her government has been repeating about the inspections regime meant to keep Iran’s nuclear ambitions in check was merely a rhetorical flourish. Read More
