this seems so profoundly deluded…can Israel intel be that bad? or nyt so gullible for believing it?
“Some Israeli officials believe that their sabotage campaign is having strategic effects and could be one of the reasons Iranians, however tentatively, have returned to Vienna.”
there are so many people who have contact with Iranian officials. how can Israel intel act like they are studying a country from five hundred years ago? i assume they know better. so what reporter would believe this garbage?
Note the incoherence. Israel intel allegedly saying maybe its sabotage convinced Iran to return to negotiations Iran always said returning to about an agreement it did not leave. In a story about Israeli officials frustrated because they do not want a deal. they want war
think it is a plausible theory that one of the goals of some of the (alleged Israeli sabotage) operations was to try to prevent a deal. to disrupt IAEA Iran ops, etc.
“The explosion at Natanz struck barely a week after the US and Iran…participated in the new talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the nuclear agreement abandoned by Trump” NYT april 11, 2021. nytimes.com/2021/04/11/wor…
“In the meetings this week, Israeli officials tried to persuade Washington not to work toward a diplomatic agreement and to instead tighten sanctions.”
The Israeli position seems a dead end and at odds with some of their own national security assessments.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
🧵”the government is very close to showing that there was a plan — led at the Capitol by the Proud Boys, but seemingly coordinated closely with some members of the Oath Keepers. The plan entailed initiating a breach, surrounding the Capitol, opening up multiple additional fronts
“…and inciting the ‘normies’to do some of the worst violence and destruction, making the Capitol uninhabitable during the hours when Congress was supposed to be making Joe Biden President.”
“People complain that DOJ has been doing nothing… But this has been a central focus of DOJ’s effort: understanding how this plan worked, and then assembling enough evidence & cooperating witnesses to be able to lay out several intersecting conspiracies that will show
“Freeman, understandably wary, asked for Cobb County police to provide protection. Eventually, Freeman agreed to speak with Kutti at the police station. *Police body-camera footage obtained by Reuters captured some of the conversation*.”
“But it was a comment Trump made at the end of the call that is of new interest following a report from Reuters on Friday..
‘Hey Brad, why wouldn’t you want to check out Ruby Freeman?’ Trump asked. It was one of more than a dozen references to Freeman..that Trump made” in call
Sima Shine closes out terrific @AtlanticCouncil event hosted by @barbaraslavin1 expressing hope agreement will be reached in near term in Vienna: I think everyone will benefit form some years of quiet in order to make the situation more calm in the Middle East
.@MahsaRouhi earlier suggested that the western sides come up with creative solutions to address legit Iran concerns a future US admin could leave the deal again, that bypass the US. Such as a certain bank abroad would handle x to y transaction.
.@Azodiac83 does think the Leader is open to a deal, even though, as Sima Shine said earlier, Rouhani's team was not allowed to finalize it before they left.
Jake Sullivan briefing on Biden Putin call at WH now
He also told him there is another option-deescalation. No reason can’t do it going forward provided operating in a period of deescalation, not escalation.
Sullivan: was a lot of give and take. no finger wagging. President Biden was crystal clear.
🧵New from me: Iran defends itself from charges of overreach as parties prepare to return to Vienna for talks on trying to revive the nuclear pact Thursday diplomatic.substack.com/p/iran-defends…
There is *a lot* of new reporting in this, incl. an interview with a US official explaining what he sees as a potential US decision point possibly coming towards end of the first quarter next year based on shrinking of Iran breakout to “margin of error” diplomatic.substack.com/p/iran-defends…
“The Fordow move combines the accumulation of 20% enriched uranium and the use of advanced IR-6 centrifuges in a facility that is difficult to target,” he said.
🧵tentative impression of some chagrin/defensiveness on Iran side after harsh reaction to its proposals in vienna last week as obnoxius overreach gives me for moment anyhow a smidgen of hope they did not intend to overshoot that much. and maybe do want to be seen as serious
(“hope” not right word above but after trying to search for another one for a while gave up in interests of time. sub a word that is less hopeful than hope.)
essentially, among the different motivations of the Iran side—the Iran govt, the Raisi admin, the nezam, etc.—one of the dynamics that seems to be at work is the desire of the new iran negotiating team to show success at home and that they could do it better than last guys