Several of Arizona’s Congressional Democrats have weighed in on the still officially unpublished page-and-a-half memorandum signifying an armistice between the United States, Israel, and Iran that is the first step in a 60-day process to negotiate a more permanent arrangement.
Or more accurately, what they heard is in it, based on scuttlebutt, what the Iranians say is in it, and reporting from news outlets like Reuters and Bloomberg, because Mr. Trump and his people have not released it to Congress and the public yet.
Most shocking is the reported revelation of $300 billion going to Iran, as Joe Scarbourgh of MSNOW calls, reparations to rebuild what the United States and Israel bombed.
In essence, Iran appears to have come out better economically positioned after this war than when it started.
For those who remember what Germany was forced to pay after World War I, only defeated nations pay reparations.
Appearing on various media outlets to promote his new book, Vice President J.D. Vance did not refute the number, saying that Iran gets the money if they carry out their responsibilities under the agreement.
Trump, while screwing over fellow Fascist bestie and war allie Benjamin Netanyahu, after the Israelis leader erroneously boasted that the Iranian leadership would be overcome by their air strikes and the rise of the Iranian people, to anyone and everyone from the media that asks him about their relationship, is now saying Iran’s hardline leaders, individuals who repress their people, call for the destruction of Israel and the United States, and spread terrorism across the Middle East and around the world, are rational leaders after calling for their annihilation of their civilization at the beginning of this conflict, there is no rush ro remove their “harmless” nuclear material, and he did not care about regime change.
In three letters, WTF.
How many lives were lost thanks to Trump’s ill-informed mood swings and whims?
How much have the United States and the American People’s economic prospects tilted downward because Trump, the man who bankrupted a casino, went into an ill-planned war of choice with objectives that were not achieved, and apparently, now no longer the Mad King’s concern?
This, if accurate, is a far worse deal than what Obama did in the international nuclear agreement his team concluded with Iran.
Reacting to this apparent America-Last agreement with Iran, Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari, blamed Trump for spreading false hopes to Iranians in Iran and America, telling reporters at KTAR:
“…I think our president knows very little about Iran. Something that I think is really important for people to know that many might not is how different the people are from the government. The Iranian people have been protesting the Islamic Republic regime for decades…it’s actually a very secular population, a very pro-West population and a population that has been cut off, quite frankly, by both the regime’s internet blackouts, but also just by decades of isolation and sanctions and an economy that’s really struggling, especially with the corruption of the regime that takes a lot of that money away. So, that’s really important because I think one of the false promises that was made as a reason to go to war, early days, seemed to be regime change. I do think that that sentiment from Trump and administration officials changed pretty quickly. They stopped with that rhetoric. But Trump in January did say, help is on the way for the Iranian people, which I think was a really devastating move. And really, Iranians were quite hopeful. And actually, many in the diaspora were more supportive than the average American because they felt that hope. So, that is important context because I think it’s really tragic that now, on top of all of the negative implications for the United States, our economic challenges, 13 U.S. service members killed, and for what? There’s really no reason this war ever should have happened. On top of that, I think Iranians in the country are left worse off with a more repressive regime than before, a younger supreme leader…”
When asked by one of the KTAR reporters if she was surprised the Iranian people did not rise up when the United States and Israel started bombing the country, Ansari responded:
“I also don’t know how you rise up when bombs are falling on you and when you’re in the midst of a and you just saw tens of thousands of your countrymen be killed.
I mean, it was an absurd sentiment from the beginning. And I think part of why we have such an incompetent, naive president who went to war despite the advice of the U.S. intelligence advice, who told him very clearly in that New York Times expose that details how we got into this war, our intelligence told him that these objectives are not possible and none of the objectives have been met. We’re about to sign a deal essentially to agree to start talking.”
On the one-and-a-half-page memorandum that starts the negotiating process, which virtually no one has seen, Ansari said on whether it is a good deal:
“….I think there’s not much in the deal. I think the deal is really to end the hostilities, to then have a conversation about the nuclear program. Look, I think it’s good that this war needs to end. We need to cut our losses and the war needs to end, but we have to be very clear that the war was catastrophic and everybody was left worse off now…
…what was it for? The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war began. People suffered economically. What are these 13 US service members dead for? Their families are left shattered for nothing, literally nothing. We had a comprehensive nuclear agreement that was signed by President Obama that Donald Trump ripped up in his first term that did, was very strong and did prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. That was clear in the preamble of the agreement…”
When asked if Nethanayu would try to sabotage the agreement, Ansari blamed Trump for falling for the Israellis leaders “pitch” about how easy a war it would be and further stated:
“We need to focus on our national security interests. Of course, that includes Iran not having a nuclear weapon. That includes Israel security. That includes stability in the Middle East. But we cannot be embarking on wars for no reason whatsoever, with no plan, with no strategy. That’s not how this works. And I think we prove that this method doesn’t work. This military option isn’t working. Iran is now stronger than they were before. And I think Iran surprised a lot of people in their military apparatus. But the regime is so entrenched. And that’s, again, something that people don’t know. It’s not like one person. You take out that person and it’s over. It’s the entire military apparatus, the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guards. So it’s not as simple. So we need to be very serious about that and be serious about peace and ending these hostilities and just making sure these ceasefires, even in Lebanon and Israel’s actions in Lebanon, need to stop as well.”
Senator Ruben Gallego published two social media posts wondering aloud what Trump is signing away with Iran.
In the first one, he asked:
“Why is Trump signing an agreement without letting us see it? 13 service members have died, Billions of dollars of equipment destroyed. Gas prices increased for every American, yet they can’t tell us what the deal is for 48 hours?”
The second one below should be a reminder to those swing voters who mistakenly thought Trump was a successful deal maker.
Speaking to CNN on why Trump has not published the agreement yet, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly said:
“I think they think the criticism is going to be more severe if people see it. I think that’s why they haven’t released it and that’s why the president tweets about it. Hey, for anybody to seriously evaluate this thing, especially me and the United States Senate on the Armed Services and the Intelligence Committee, I got to see something that isn’t a tweet.
I’ve got to see the text itself and a page and a half. I mean, after a month of negotiations, that’s what Jared Kushner and Steve Wyckoff, they were able to come up with. I mean, we need to have serious people that have experience doing these things negotiate this deal.”
On MSNOW with Stephanie Ruhle, the Senator expanded on his thoughts, telling her:
“Well, we should get a say and we should see the text. I mean, I’ve got, you know, here sitting in front of me the what is supposedly this 14 point plan, you know, that was released.
And then the administration says, well, this isn’t it. I think they realize. What’s that? We don’t live in should what’s really going to happen in the next two days? Well, I imagine we’ll eventually see the text and Congress should get a say in, you know, whether this is the deal we make with the Iranian government.
But what I’m hearing and seeing so far in this plan, this is like total capitulation. Imagine if Joe Biden or Barack Obama signed this deal, what Donald Trump would say about it. And so if this is his plan, I think at least if Congress gets a say, this thing’s a nonstarter for the American people...
…I think it emboldens the Iranians, it makes them more powerful, it gives them resources to build more ballistic missiles and may leave them with the ability to develop a nuclear weapon. It makes the region more safe, which ultimately means that we are less safe.”
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The Wall Street Journal got a draft of the agreement from someone at the G-7 meeting. They published it with some brief commentary after each little section. In addition to the well-publicized $300 billion (which supposedly will come from other regional countries), there is also mention of a $100 billion from sanctions relief. One other thing: it promises that the Lebanon hostilities will cease, but neither Israel nor Lebanon were party to the negotiations. Here’s a link for those who have Apple News: https://apple.news/AyMKzHHuNQYeruuTHYKJOrw