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The nuclear deal gave Iran 56 BIllion in cash and the US gave 1.7 billion in cash.


Thanks, Obama


https://www.politifact.com/factchec...trump-iran-150-billion-and-18-billion-c/


The 2015 agreement freed up Iranian assets that had been frozen under sanctions. Called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal included Iran and the United States, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The agreement only affected sanctions imposed to punish Iran for its nuclear program. Iran has other assets that remain frozen.

Some conservatives have put the amount released after lifted sanctions as high as $150 billion, which is the highest of estimates we have seen. Another estimate from Iran’s Central Bank topped out at about $29 billion in readily available funds, with another $45 billion tied up in Chinese investment projects and the foreign assets of the Iran’s Oil Ministry.

After talking with officials at Iran’s Central Bank, Nader Habibi, professor of economics of the Middle East at Brandeis University, believes the actual total is between $25 billion and $50 billion.

In July 2015, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told lawmakers Iran would gain access to $56 billion.


The $1.8 billion
The Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan analytic arm of Congress, reviewed this cash transfer in a 2018 report. It gave a total of $1.7 billion.

That was the amount that U.S. and Iranian negotiators settled on to resolve an arms contract between the United States and Iran that predated the Iranian revolution in 1979. Iran had paid for military equipment, and it was never delivered.

As of 1990, there were $400 million in that account. Negotiators agreed that accrued interest would add $1.3 billion to the amount, which is a lot of money — but 25 years is a long time for interest to build up the balance.

The United States sent the money to Iran in euros, Swiss francs and other currencies. Trump embellished when he mentioned barrels and boxes. Reports at the time said the money was packed and loaded onto pallets, similar to how other bulk goods are shipped.

jc

You have to admit Mossad is pretty bad ass to blow up all of those Hezbollah terrorists with pagers, then with radios, so they had no choice but to use their phones, so then they knew the Hezbollah boss was leaving his hideout under the mountain. And they blew his ass up. He was the leader for 30 years. It's a major big deal. I have never seen a military operation so slickly and precisely carried out.

That's the only reason Iran jumped in. And now Iran is playing with fire. Israel is on the warpath and is tired of these asshats shooting missiles at them. And I don't blame them.

Agreed. 100%.
This was some "next-level" s#.

And you can bet that whomever approved of this course of action will be the next Hezbollah member to leave this plane of existence.
https://cafe.com/stay-tuned/pager-attack-israel-hezbollah/
30 min. interview.

From 3:45-10:57.
Surgical af.

Like I said: next-level tradecraft.

.02

Not sure how much airplay this got .... but it's significant. There is a growing case to be made that Benjamin Netanyahu is undertaking actions based solely on keeping himself in power as he will face charges and probably go to jail once he is no longer PM.


https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveb...curity-if-palestinian-state-established/

“The Israeli prime minister came here today and said that Israel is surrounded by those who want to destroy it,” Safadi said at a Friday press conference shortly after Netanyahu finished his speech at the UN General Assembly.

“We’re here — members of the Muslim-Arab committee, mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim countries — and I can tell you very unequivocally, all of us are willing to guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian state,” Safadi passionately argued.

“The amount of damage that this Israeli government has done — 30 years of efforts to convince people that peace is possible, this Israeli government killed it. The amount of dehumanization, hatred, bitterness, will take generations to navigate through,” the Jordanian foreign minister says. “We have no partner for peace in Israel, there is a partner for peace in the Arab world, and that’s why the international community needs to move.”

Iran Is Closer to Building a Nuclear Bomb Than It Has Ever Been

Five years after Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, we’re still living with one of his greatest blunders. Why hasn’t Biden fixed it?

Exactly five years ago, Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in one of the dumbest moves of his presidency—the dumbest when it comes to foreign policy.

This is not a partisan statement. It’s also true that President Joe Biden’s failure to reverse Trump’s misstep ranks as the most puzzling—and may prove to be most catastrophic—decision in his term of office so far.

But Trump’s move on May 8, 2018, set the stage for whatever disasters may come of it. By the time he pulled the plug, Iran was well on its way to dismantling its nuclear program. International inspectors, who were granted full access to suspect sites, said in all of their routine reports that Iran was in full compliance with the deal’s terms.

Now the inspectors are gone, and Iran is closer to building an atom bomb than it ever has been.

Why did Trump abrogate the deal? First, he didn’t much like arms-control agreements of any sort. Second, he particularly distrusted Iran, a view bolstered by his friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (ignoring the fact that most Israeli military and intelligence officers supported the deal). Finally, and perhaps most significantly: To Trump’s mind, nothing Obama ever did could be touted as a success, so the Iran deal—a resounding success by all objective measures—had to be pummeled as (in Trump’s oft-repeated words) “the worst deal ever.”

It’s worth recounting here what the Iran nuclear deal—formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—did and did not do. Basically, it required Iran to dismantle almost all of its nuclear program; in exchange, the U.S. would lift almost all of its economic sanctions. In the main clauses, Iran had to:
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• Destroy all of its uranium enriched to 3.75 percent and limit further enriched uranium to 3.5 percent. (Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90 percent.)

• Cut its uranium stockpile by 90 percent (to 300 kilograms, not enough to build one A-bomb).

• Destroy two-thirds of its centrifuges—the devices that enrich uranium—and refrain from building advanced models, which spin faster.

• Export the spent fuel from its research reactors, which could otherwise be reprocessed into plutonium.

• Stop all work on metallurgy related to the casings for uranium or plutonium bombs.

• Allow officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect all known and suspected nuclear sites with 24 hours’ notice.

The limits on uranium would expire in 10 years (by 2016) but those on centrifuges would last 20 years and IAEA’s monitoring of uranium mines and mills would last 25 years.

In exchange, the U.S. would lift sanctions, which it had imposed when Iran started developing its nuclear program—but it would not lift the sanctions that had been imposed as a penalty for producing ballistic missiles or for sponsoring terrorism.

When Trump pulled out, he reimposed all the economic sanctions—not only on Iran but also on any country doing business with Iran. For nearly a year, Iran’s diplomats tried to find ways around the restrictions—as did several EU countries, though to no avail. (The Europeans weren’t willing to be barred from transactions in dollars for the sake of their paltry trade with Iran.)

Meanwhile, Iran’s leaders continued to abide by the deal’s other terms—they continued to dismantle their nuclear program and to allow intrusive inspections. Finally, though, seeing no way to break through the sanctions, they resumed enriching uranium and, gradually, the other once-banned activities as well. They did so, citing Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA: If one signatory finds that others “were not meeting their commitments,” then, after consultations, it would have “grounds to cease performing its commitments.”
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Republicans complained that Iran was violating the nuclear deal. The irony was twofold. First, Iran was only reacting to Trump’s abrogation of the deal, and doing so in a way that the deal allowed. Second, if the deal was as bad as the Republicans claimed it was, why did they see Iran’s violations as so egregious?

Then Biden won the White House. Having been Obama’s vice president, Biden of course supported the accord, as did his top aides, some of whom had been deeply involved in the talks with Iran during Obama’s administration. Many in Congress would have opposed a resumption, but the deal was a “multinational executive arrangement,” not a treaty, so Congress had no formal say in the matter. Another crucial fact: The Iranian leaders who’d signed the deal—President Hassan Rouhani and foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, both reformers, relatively speaking—were still in office. Elections, which would likely (and ultimately did) restore harder-line clerics to power, were scheduled for June. In the five months till then, Biden could have re-initialed the deal or at least reopened talks.

True, around this time, Tehran was stiffening its resistance to resuming diplomacy. European officials tried to get the ball rolling again. Iranians refused to meet with any Americans directly. The EU offered to be an intermediary. Preliminary talks got underway in Vienna, but they soon broke down. The impasse was almost juvenile. Biden officials wanted Tehran to dismantle some of its nuclear program before they lifted some sanctions; Iranian officials wanted Biden to make the first move. A reasonable case could be made that Washington should go first. After all, the U.S., not Iran, had scrapped the deal; Biden was in the process of reversing several of Trump’s executive orders. He could have done the same with JCPOA. But he didn’t. Why didn’t he?
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I have asked this question in many quarters over the past two years. So have several other reporters. I have neither heard nor read a persuasive answer. Some officials have said Biden’s plate was full, as indeed it was, but he managed to extend New START—the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reduction treaty, which Obama had signed in 2010 and which was about to expire—two weeks after Inauguration Day. He could have at least reopened talks on JCPOA with nearly as little difficulty.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/05/trump-iran-nuclear-deal-withdrawal-five-years-later.html

It doesn’t get a lot of play on the outside but Israel is very divided right now. I know quite a few Israelis and most of the ones I know personally pretty well despise Bibi. Not all of them of course. But he was Trump before Trump. Only, much more of a committed politician and frankly much smarter. But similarly willing to trash government institutions to further his own short term political gains (see: court limits that were huge news right before Oct 7) and burn the house down to save his own tail. So it wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

But he’s also getting hounded by the ultra orthodox Zionist party and Likud and frankly he owes his political life to them. In many ways they’re steering the ship. Some of them match the Iranians in terms of being religiously hallucinattory and ability to completely justify just about any action in the name of country. Like the “orthodox” of any religion or ideology that applies to governing people, their fears and impluses… they’re completely nuts by design.

But then there’s this other half, just about 50% of the country that are eminently reasonable. The country is very split.

I will say as an important aside though… we also don’t recognize nearly enough how much Iran is engineering and stoking all of this. Oct 7 was about Iran, via their proxy Hamas, luring Israel into an inescapable trap. They just had to be willing to sacrifice the civilians of Gaza, which they were more than happy to do. The Abraham Accords were just about to be ratified. This would have normalized relations between Israel and most of the Arab world. Iran was desperate to stop this. And they succeeded.

So, very much like 9/11, they engineered a strike that would be extremely visible, soft targets in broad daylight, targeting young people and families and other civilians, taking hundreds of mostly young hostages back over the border and into the tunnels. They knew exactly what was coming next. Much like with Al-Qaeda and the US, their goal wasn’t to topple us but to provoke a very visible over reaction and over extension and to foment divisions within Israel. With that kind of strike, cooler heads never prevail, cooler heads are downright demonized. They know this, especially with Israel.

If you’re willing to eat the punch and take a few days/ weeks/ months of horrible press, what you get in return is a steady drum beat of the over reaction and over extension played out in hi def and full color on everyone in the world’s TV and phone for months or years to come. The trapped country spends all its moral and intellectual as well as financial and human capital trying to solve an incredibly complex human problem equipped with only a sledge hammer. Israel’s name becomes toxic to half the world who haven’t kept up and are too surface to understand what’s really going on. That the western left would leap to embrace what they perceived to be as an abjectly oppressed population, losing the plot that they are steered by a 100% Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization (see: comments about orthodox organizations above). This was also well understood by Iran. That’s a dynamic that’s understood by all terrorist groups. Its not about winning the flashy start, it’s about making you lose in the long exhausting muddy, embarrassing, morally bankrupt, political quicksand of the end. Watching you collapse under your own weight and internal discord as you swing wildly in the 10th round and slink back to your locker room, the world booing. Its a war of P.R. Hearts and minds, shaping and controlling the narrative. So ironic that the sophisticated western democracies lose this point while the caveman terrorists have it sharpened to a razors edge. Western countries operate from a perspective of winning and losing in the big dumb Hollywood sense. Terrorists know that there’s another option: everyone loses. Yes, to them ruling the ashes is a perfectly acceptable defacto win. I often wonder if the western world will ever be able to armor this Achilles heal. Watching Israel fight for its life while ripping itself in half and becoming the pariah of half the world informs me that not anytime soon.

We’ll end up bombing Iran into the stone age again. I despise the innocent deaths, but the muslim side is at fault for terrorizing everyday Israelis. Death to America, Death to Israel, is all I needed to hear. Screw them, kill em all.

I think we all wish that would work but it just doesn’t. Lots of examples but the best is Afghanistan. I read something a few years ago that said that combined, between the British, Russians and Americans more bombs were dropped on Afghanistan than in Europe in WW2. Or was it just Germany? I forget. But did it work? Nnnnnnnnope!

The truth is, the caviest of the cavemen always survive. It’s the beauty, innocence and any hints of progress that gets snuffed out when you bomb them “back to the Stone Age” and the cavemen just waltz back in like thank you very much for clearing out the riff raff, we’ll take it from here. All the better to set up a caliphate on a clean slate and keep the trembling remnants of the populace under heal. Which would in theory be acceptable to us if they didn’t almost always segue to bitter revenge, either directly or indirectly. It never works.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-823077

Sinwar's right-hand man: Hamas leader Rawhi Mushtaha announced killed

I really dislike the Middle East so damn much.

So. Damn. Much.

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hy6g00vpar

IDF kills 250 Hezbollah terrorists in four days, including 21 commanders

You know how I feel about em. They could tarp it off and fumigate the entire region as far as I’m concerned. I’ve felt that deeply since watching Nick Berg murdered by those animals. If you can do that ish to another human being who done you no harm, you don’t deserve to live.

And I know there are more good people there than bad, unfortunately they all blend when you go to sort them. So, when they start holding these types of murderers responsible and bringing them to justice, i’ll reconsider my multi state genocide hate and give them a chance. But as long as they let this type of men lead them, or live and operate among them freely, kill em all, let nature do the rest.

Swish- I fear that there might never be something that resembles mutual civil tolerance, or an easing of tensions in this region.
Tribal affiliations and mutual animus have been baked into the regional culture for thousands of years.

These folk have been playing 'Hatfields/McCoys' since the time of Jesus- and before. They've been beefing it up since slings, arrows, clubs and thrown rocks were hi-tech armament. They can't seem to extricate themselves from this cultural/tribal mindset because it's too fundamental in how they see themselves/each other. And now, they are armed with ballistic missiles, Iron Dome defense technology, and (in the case of Israel) nukes... with Iran on the doorstep (we can talk about 45's intentional dismantling of 44's Iran agreement that saw the near-teardown of their nuclear weapons program, but that subject is for another discussion).


Nothing but beef- since the days of the Old Testament Book.

I hate this crap, too.
It's like tryna run an HOA in an otherwise manageable neighborhood (the world)... with 2 or 3 beefing asshat fams in a distant corner of the cul-du-sac.

I really don't think these folks are ever gonna change/evolve. They don't really want to, because both are convinced that they are right- and the rest of the neighborhood 'just doesn't understand'.
Expect more of the same, for as long as you live... and you're young enough to be My Grandson. I been watching this s# go down since I was in High School... with almost no change in the day-to-day/decade-to-decade dynamics.


.02,
clem.

And they do it the name of god. Their god is the only god. Your god is false, we will kill you now because of your beliefs.

Pfffft religion is the main cause of most wars.

Genocide has never been an attractive trait. Just ask a Native American. They would think what you just posted sounds oddly familiar.

True. Native Americans were considered pagans. They needed religion or they must die.

And the only way to end the thousand year old tribal mentality is to end the tribe. But that is frowned upon. Can’t fix em, can’t erase em.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2ld3wxeyqo

US warships and planes strike Houthi targets in Yemen

Do you have an issue with this? They’re pretty much a known enemy to the US and world shipping.

They have attacked shipping vessels as well as U.S ships. It was a retaliatory strike in an attempt to make shipping lanes safer. I didn't hear of any mass civilian casualties involved in this move so I certainly have no issue with it.

War-Crimes Court issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

Link

He was already facing criminal charges in Israel. Add more to the pile.

jc

anybody paying attention to what's happening in Syria? Aleppo got captured by rebels.

Dude it’s nuts. Now is exactly the time to keep turning up the heat on Iran and especially Russia. I think 47 will let Russia off the hook though.

Rebels made it to Hama

https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...egun-enter-crucial-city-hama-2024-12-05/

i agree bro, we're about to have a POTUS who will go out of his way to not have Putin be embarrassed.

jc

Israel's Golan Heights will be official there's soon. nobody to really push back.


which is whatever, but we really need a two state solution dealing with palenstine.

Iran troops have evacuated their military bases from Syria.

HTS has a lot of modern weapons and equipment seized from Syrian, Russian, and Iranian militaries.

[ quote]we really need a two state solution dealing with palenstine.[/quote]

Gotta get Netanyahu out first.

Gotta get Netanyahu out first.[/quote]

What about the other side? This problem predates him. The Palestinians have proven over and over that they do not want anything to do with a two state solution. From the River to the Sea isn’t just a chant.

Gotta get Netanyahu out first.[/quote]

Netanyahu is not the problem. The problem is Hamas. The 2-state solution has proven time and time again it does not work. Israel is a sovereign nation, and all of their land should be under Israel control.

When was a two state solution ever implemented?