{"id":49755,"date":"2019-11-21T08:51:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T13:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49755"},"modified":"2019-11-21T08:51:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T13:51:41","slug":"irans-only-crime-is-we-decided-not-to-fold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49755","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s \u2018only crime is we decided not to fold\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.asiatimes.com\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Iran-900x540.jpg\" alt=\"Iran&#8217;s &#8216;only crime is we decided not to fold&#8217;\u00a0\"\/><figcaption>Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the annual Astana Club meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan last week. Photo: Asia Times \/ Pepe Escobar\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatimes.com\/2019\/11\/article\/irans-only-crime-is-we-decided-not-to-fold\/\">Iran\u2019s \u2018only crime is we decided not to fold\u2019\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Foreign Minister Zarif sketches Iran-US relations for diplomats, former presidents and analysts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Just in time to shine a light on what\u2019s behind&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatimes.com\/2019\/11\/article\/us-ends-sanction-waivers-for-iran-nuclear-plant\/\">the latest sanctions from Washington<\/a>, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a speech at the annual&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/astanaclub.kz\/#\/2019\">Astana Club<\/a>meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan delivered a searing account of Iran-US relations to a select audience of high-ranking diplomats, former Presidents and analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zarif was the main speaker in a panel titled \u201cThe New Concept of Nuclear Disarmament.\u201d Keeping to a frantic schedule, he rushed in and out of the round table to squeeze in a private conversation with Kazakh First President Nursultan Nazarbayev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the panel, moderator Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, managed to keep a Pentagon analyst\u2019s questioning of Zafir from turning into a shouting match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously, I had extensively discussed with Syed Rasoul Mousavi, minister for West Asia at the Iran Foreign Ministry, myriad details on Iran\u2019s stance everywhere from the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan. I was at the James Bond-ish round table of the Astana Club, as I moderated two other panels, one on multipolar Eurasia and the post-INF environment and another on Central Asia (the subject of further columns).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zarif\u2019s intervention was extremely forceful. He stressed how Iran \u201ccomplied with every agreement and it got nothing;\u201d how \u201cour people believe we have not gained from being part of\u201d the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action; how inflation is out of control; how the value of the rial dropped 70% \u201cbecause of \u2018coercive measures\u2019 \u2013 not sanctions because they are illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He spoke without notes, exhibiting absolute mastery of the inextricable swamp that is US-Iran relations. It turned out, in the end, to be a bombshell. Here are highlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran\u2019s \u2018only crime is we decided not to fold\u2019\u00a0 Foreign Minister Zarif sketches Iran-US relations for diplomats, former presidents and analysts Just in time to shine a light on what\u2019s behind&nbsp;the latest sanctions from Washington, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a speech at the annual&nbsp;Astana Clubmeeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan delivered a searing account [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15907,441,4076,827,865],"class_list":["post-49755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-asia-times","tag-iran","tag-pepe-escobar","tag-united-states","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49756,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49755\/revisions\/49756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}