By Finian Cunningham
January 20, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" -
Not since the
1930s has European appeasement been seen
to be so cowardly, so cynical and
ultimately so recklessly leading to
greater escalation and war.
In the 1930s, British and French
appeasement of Nazi fascism led to World
War II. Nearly a century later, the same
unscrupulous fawning over American
imperialism towards Iran is similarly
creating the conditions that fuel
lawlessness and aggression.
The
joint statement issued this week by
the European troika of Britain, France
and Germany regarding the international
nuclear accord with Iran was a
masterclass in deception and cynicism.
The so-called E3 said they were
triggering a dispute mechanism because,
they alleged, Iran was in violation of
the international accord, formally known
as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA)
“We have therefore been left with no
choice, given Iran’s actions, but to
register today our concerns that Iran is
not meeting its commitments under the
JCPOA and to refer this matter to the
Joint Commission under the Dispute
Resolution Mechanism, as set out in
paragraph 36 of the JCPOA,” read the
European joint statement.
It concludes: “We do this in good
faith with the overarching objective of
preserving the JCPOA and in the sincere
hope of finding a way forward to resolve
the impasse through constructive
diplomatic dialogue, while preserving
the agreement and remaining within its
framework. In doing so, our three
countries are not joining a campaign to
implement maximum pressure against Iran.
Our hope is to bring Iran back into full
compliance with its commitments under
the JCPOA.”
Iran is being put in a no-win
situation because of false claims. The
dispute cannot be resolved, and so over
the coming weeks the European are moving
to re-impose UN and EU sanctions on
Iran. The JCPOA is thus finished.
Are You Tired Of
The Lies And
Non-Stop Propaganda?
|
As Russia’s foreign ministry
pointed out, the European
“dangerous” move to censure Iran is not
justified, and it will lead to further
escalation in an already dangerous
stand-off between the US and Iran.
What the Europeans are doing is
falsely blaming Iran for violating the
JCPOA by Tehran’s incremental suspension
of commitments over the past seven
months. Iran was forced into doing that
because it was the Trump administration
that first violated the international
treaty by unilaterally rescinding it in
May 2018, and subsequently reimposing
crippling economic sanctions on Iran.
Iran warned the Europeans in May 2019
that they must take steps to uphold the
accord and implement trade mechanisms to
avoid US sanctions. The Europeans failed
miserably to deliver on their
commitments to the JCPOA and sheepishly
backed away from doing business with
Iran in the face of US threats of
secondary sanctions.
The pious joint statement this week
from the EU troika is a mendacious
cover-up of their own weakness and
failure to stand up to American
bullying.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas
said in a separate statement: “Our goal
is clear: we want to preserve the accord
and come to a diplomatic solution within
the agreement.”
British counterpart Dominic Raab told
Britain’s parliament that “the Iranian
regime has a choice.”
“The regime can take the steps to
de-escalate tensions and adhere to the
basic rules of international law. Or
sink deeper and deeper into political
and economic isolation,” he said. “We
urge Iran to work with us to save the
deal,” said Raab from the pseudo moral
high-ground.
The Europeans are turning reality on
its head. Condemning Iran for violating
the deal is the cowardly wheeze of
“blaming the victim” while whitewashing
the very real and much greater
violations by the US and the Europeans
themselves.
Telling Iran that it must “take steps
to de-escalate” is an absurd distortion
of the relentless build up of military
force by the US in the Middle East aimed
at Iran. The Europeans make the risible
claim that they are not joining the US
“maximum pressure” campaign when that is
exactly what they are doing. It’s as
insulting to common intelligence as
Britain’s Neville Chamberlain
proclaiming “peace in our time” after
sucking up to Hitler at Munich in 1938.
The European sniveling capitulation
to Trump’s warmongering towards Iran has
been underway over the past three years.
The American president greeted the
latest act of European vassalage with
stirring words of lies and more threats.
“The civilized world must send a
clear and unified message to the Iranian
regime: your campaign of terror, murder,
mayhem will not be tolerated any
longer,” Trump said,
according to a statement released by
the State Department.
Iran needs to face up to the truth.
The European governments are not honest
brokers nor are they genuine partners.
They cannot be trusted, as Ayatollah
Khamenei
said this week.
Iran is grieving the loss of national
hero Maj. General Soleimani who was
murdered on the orders of Trump. The
country is grieving over the air
disaster of a civilian plane being shot
down by Iranian defense forces amid
heightened tensions of an American-led
war. Yet the Europeans say nothing of
condemnation against the aggressor in
Washington. Indeed, they are piling on
the isolation and smearing of Iran,
repeating baseless US accusation of it
having secret nuclear ambitions.
This European appeasement is only
lending further false justification for
American aggression towards Iran. It is
fueling the danger of war despite its
cynical claims of wanting a “diplomatic
solution” and adhering to international
law.
Iranian-American scholar Soraya
Sepahpour-Ulrich has called this moment
a “wake-up call” for Iran.
In an
interview for Press TV, she said:
“The Europeans have shown repeatedly
through their actions they are not a
European power. They are a European
marketplace. And the United States has
leverage in this marketplace and even
dictates its rules.”
That was an implicit reference to the
reported threats by the Trump
administration to hit the EU with steep
tariffs on auto exports if it did not
trigger the dispute mechanism with Iran
this week.
Sepahpour-Ulrich also questions the
basic premise of the 2015 nuclear accord
which was signed by the US, Britain,
France, Germany, Russia and China after
years of tortuous negotiations. She says
that for the Western states, the JCPOA
“was never about establishing normal
relations with Iran. It was about
subduing Iran, undermining it and taking
away its power, basically.”
As such, it is perhaps a good thing
that the charade of the nuclear accord
is finally finished, due to the latest
bad faith from the incorrigible European
lackeys in hock to US imperialist
bullying.
Being entangled in the charade was
always a drain on Iranian power and,
paradoxically, a source of escalation,
as the disturbing current dynamic is
proving.
The false choice being presented by
the EU to Iran of “returning to
compliance” should be repudiated. Iran
should henceforth direct its economic
interests wholeheartedly towards
co-development with Russia, China and
the Eurasian realm. Any further
wrangling with the Western charlatans is
only inviting war.