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Breaking the Cycles of War, part 1

“Ezekiel saw the wheel, way up in middle of the air. It’s a wheel in a wheel, way up in the middle of the air.  Now the little wheel turns by faith, and the big wheel turns by the grace of God. It’s a wheel in a wheel, way up in the middle of the air.”

The lyrics above are from a Gospel song. I remember the Bible story from my youth; it read then like a heavenly visitation.  When I read the story today, it reads more like a visit by aliens from outer space. The description of the image itself could well be that of a spaceship with wings and fire spewing out of its thrusters. As for the message this “Lord” gave Ezekiel to deliver to the Israelites, which takes up the bulk of the book, it unfolds as a chastisement and purging of the Jewish population. 

This engenders in me a suspicion that the many and diverse peoples and nations on the planet may well have their roots in genetic projects installed by beings from other star systems who came here in spaceships to find a viable atmosphere and terrain for their projects to develop and evolve. The Israelites, in this scenario, were one such project that had apparently gone sour. 

According to the story, the people thought their Creator had abandoned them and left them to their own devices. They became rebellious and fell into whorish and adulterous behavior, inbreeding with the Egyptians, yet another genetic project.  The cleansing slaughter of the rebellious ones and their adulterated progeny was an apparent effort at purifying the gene pool in order to create a “Chosen People.” What resulted from this bloody purging was the emergence of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

It’s a fascinating story, especially if one reads it as one chapter in the history of the origins of the peoples and nations currently populating the planet.  What do we really know about the origin of nations . . . and that of humanity?  Have these aliens returned to check on their projects? Are they waging a proxy war with one another over exclusive rights to the planet for their projects, pitting us against one another, nation against nation, to fight their battles? All of these questions and more investigative author David Wilcock addresses in his provocative book The Synchronicity Key.

(I published this series back in 2019, 3.5 years ago . . .”Time, times, and a half a time”. . . recalling a significant biblical phrase mentioned in Daniel (12:7) and Revelation (12:14) to be references that represent a period of 1260 years, based on the 360 day Jewish year multiplied by 3.5.)  

SYNCHRONICITY – CYCLES WITHIN CYCLES

The “wheels within wheels” image has been used metaphorically in describing cycles of various kinds, such as seasonal and cosmic cycles that repeat yearly, and in some instances over hundreds and thousands of years. Our four seasons are examples of yearly cycles. The Mayan’s “Great Year,” consisting of 25,920 years, is an example of a larger cycle that moves in increments of 1260 years of Earth’s precession through the twelve “Houses” of the Zodiac, which in turn move through 540-year quarter cycles.  Each cycle initiates and completes a stage of evolution of our solar system and of our species. 

The planets spiral through the cosmos, although they appear to move in circular orbits around our sun.  The sun, of course, is not stationary but is flying through space in its own orbit around the Central Sun of the Milky Way Galaxy, which itself is traveling through space. You can easily invision, then, colossal spirals being traced in space by our solar system. The entire picture is one of wheels within wheels.

These wheels are turned by electrical energy (the “grace of God” perhaps?) spiraling — as we saw in my blog series “Masculine/Feminine Energy” — in opposite directions inward and outward in relation to a central vortex, of which there are an infinite number that make up the visible universe. According to Walter Russell, it is this dynamic dance of the positive/negative, masculine/feminine energetic forces that drives the rotation and revolution of heavenly bodies and keeps them moving.

Our physical body alone is composed of countless electromagnetic fields of energy that interact with one another under the direction of Intelligence inherent within energy itself — and where there is Intelligence there is Consciousness through which it works.  Being part of a microcosm that shares an intimate working relationship with a macrocosm, we are impacted by what goes on energetically in these two realms of the “creating universe.” By the same intimate relationship, what goes on in our realm of activity, creatively and destructively, impacts the microcosm and the macrocosm. The field where this impact occurs is the Collective Consciousness which we share with our solar Entity. 

I have frequently referred to our solar system as an Entity in my writings, and for good reason, as well as accuracy.  Our star system with planets orbiting a central sun is a living entity embodying the Great Father Spirit, just as our planet Earth is a living entity embodying the Great Mother Gaia. Our solar Entity generates a Mind which we share — one Mind shared by all living beings on the planet.  Mind and matter are created by Consciousness seeded by the Creator. We are the Creator incarnate, and we have been using our Collective Consciousness to create a world upon the face of the Earth, not all of which is in harmony with the Natural World created by Father Sun and Mother Earth.

THE “HERO’S JOURNEY” AND THE GLOBAL ADVERSARY & NEMESIS

There have always been those who have taken selfish advantage of this realm of creating consciousness by sowing the seeds of greed and fear in its sacred soil, manipulating the masses to give up their power to their elected leaders who have sworn an oath to protect them.  In our day, they are the “negative elite” who control the world’s finances . . . and a lot more:  the media, for instance, so that the people hear and see only what they allow to be released. 

Known as the “Cabal,” they are comprised primarily of the central banking system with financial depositories both here and abroad. It was established during the First World War period when the Federal Reserve was created as a central “depository” for all the gold that was taken from the countries that were defeated and/or destroyed in the wars with an ill-begotten and dishonest plan that it would be used to secretly back up their currencies. According to David Wilcock’s investigations, this mass confiscation of gold started in 1895 when the Japanese invaded Korea and plundered their central banks. The pillage spread to other countries, including Germany whose gold was taken by the Bolsheviks and used to create the Soviet Union.  We have gold and silver, but the Federal Reserve will not allow the government to create our currency. Two presidents tried it and both were assassinated. Credit and debt are what back up our currency — and channel interest profits into their coffers. The pity of it all is that we the people allow it. 

Those countries that refused to give up their gold for “safe keeping” in the Federal Reserve had their gold forcefully taken, never to be returned to these countries, although some demanded a return.  The Cabal uses its stolen and acquired wealth to finance both sides of wars — which the Cabal itself instigate by fraudulent means in order to reap huge profits that flow into their pockets from the Military Industrial Complex. But that’s not the entire gist of the story.

This story is about “The Hero’s Journey” Joseph Campbell conceived and wrote about. The story itself is as ancient as the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise and the legendary Quest for the Holy Grail, what Campbell calls the “Elixir of Immortality.” The story forms the very structure of all successful screenplays for movies. The hero with his/her flaws strikes out on a journey in search of the desires and longings of his/her heart, only to be faced with the “nemesis” that stands between the hero and the prize, often his/her own character flaw and shadow.  Either he/she will defeat the nemesis or be defeated by it. This story is not limited to the individual’s life journey and drama, but can be seen played out in the collective by nations and by religions, even by Humanity on a global scale. The Cabal is this civilization’s nemesis that must be faced and defeated if we are to have a future and a Golden Age.

HISTORY DOES REPEAT  

There’s much taking place behind the scenes in the cycles of historical events that have been repeating for eons, and specifically since the rise of the Roman Empire with whom we share a Zodiac cycle of 1260 years — and whose various wars are mirrored by the wars on this end of the cycle, history repeating itself in patterns of corruption and greed for power and control over the wealth and natural resources of nations. In some instances, according to Wilcock’s investigations, the key instigators and players themselves reincarnating in an effort to clean up their karma and achieve a more positive outcome in their hero’s journey and quest for the elixir of immortality.

For example, Wilcock cites the astonishing similar facial features of Adolf Hitler and the Carthaginian warlord Hannibal, a typical aspect of true reincarnations. These two warlords, who rose to power in the same year separated by 2160 years, had similar battle tactics as well. Hannibal (221 BC) crossed the French Alps with his giant elephants to invade Carthage, and Hitler (1939) invaded Poland with his army of tanks. They both had issues with the Jewish Nation as well. The name Hannibal means “Ba’al is my lord” or “With the grace of Ba’al,” the equivalent of “Satan” in Hebrew, becoming “Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies,” the very nemesis of the Hebrew Nation.  Hitler conducted his holocaust against the Jews in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Both were betrayed and committed suicide. 

President Richard Nixon shares a Zodiac cycle with look-alike Roman Emperor Scipio Africanus, both men offering bribes to enemy countries to end or extend their wars so as to benefit them politically. President Jimmy Carter shares a 1260-year cycle with his look-alike Cato, the Roman Censor, both men exerting their political efforts in restoring the morality of their countries in the wake of Nixon and Scipio respectively.  

More currently, Vladimir Putin‘s aggression against Ukraine, and his paranoia over the encroaching proximity of NATO nations, comes approximately 1260 years after Frankish King Pepin III begins his expedition to Septimania and Aquitaine in 762 CE and his conquering of the cities of Carcassonne, Toulouse, Rodez and Albi.  Duke Waifer of Aquitaine plunders Burgundy and Pepin invades Aquitainian-held Berry and the Auvergne, capturing the fortresses of Bourbon and Clermont. Waifer’s Basque troops are defeated by the Franks and deported to northern France with their wives and children.  

In most instances, however, it is the patterns of human thought and behavior, deeply ingrained into the collective consciousness and human psyche, that find easy access to resonant substance in mentally disturbed individuals who then act out these patterns of sociopathic and psychopathic behavior in atrocities of all kinds.  It has been estimated that globally approximately three percent of men and one percent of women are sociopaths.  

THE WAR CYCLE IS BROKEN 

Take heart, however, for the cycle of repetitious wars has been broken in our time. This part of the story I will leave to David Wilcock himself and his highly acclaimed book, from which I will excerpt a couple of paragraphs that wrap up his investigation in an optimistic and encouraging summary. 

A Grand, Compassionate Design

Now that we have passed the Mayan calendar end date of December 21, 2012, we have crossed over into the Age of Aquarius, as I argued in The Source Field Investigations. This massive change, propelling us into a Golden Age, has already begun-and will undoubtedly get more and more interesting as time goes by. We can clearly see that the 25,920-year “master cycle” is much more than a slow, boring wobble in the earth’s axis. Instead, it seems to represent a mechanism that is written into the mind of our galaxy and all its stars, planets, and satellites. This grand cycle appears to work like the mainspring in a cosmic clock. It powers our evolutionary path and our events in history through the Hero’s Journey archetypes in nice, neat cycles of time. In Law of One terms, this grand story was carefully planned out, long before we ever got here, as the “preferred method” to help us awaken to the basic need to love one another – regardless of race, color, religion, gender, or nationality. We keep repeating the same events and the same atrocities, until we no longer choose to create them. Once we finally decide not to discriminate against one another, and decide to strive for a better world, peace and freedom will finally be ours for the taking — and we will enter into an unprecedented Golden Age.

We can be much more confident that everything is going to work out once we understand that the most distressing wars and political events are not random. There is a grand, compassionate design to the workings of history that unfold before us. As a collective consciousness, this appears to be the method by which we are ultimately prepared for a whole new way of thinking, acting, and being. Our living universe is not sadis­tic. We are not meant to simply keep suffering the same wars and atrocities, right on schedule, as if this were some form of ongoing, ritual torture. We do have free will, and this means we do meet up with whatever we create. As we grow and evolve, the histories of our nations can increas­ingly detach from negative timelines and gravitate toward other, health­ier cycles the earth [and I would add the galaxy] has to offer us. We may even experience an epic, worldwide curtain call–the ultimate piercing of the veil. In that case, the whole mechanism and its hidden players, both positive and negative, may finally be revealed, and we will enter into an entirely new structure of time itself. This is where the dance of free will comes in. What channel of the greatest show on earth are we collectively deciding to watch? What future are we voting for by the thoughts and actions we take each moment?

A Benevolent Spirit Prevails

Very well said. I believe there is a great and benevolent Spirit embodied by our Milky Way galaxy that is sending out energetic waves of love and compassion that impact our solar system, and that this Spirit is calling for a frequency shift to hasten our evolutionary process and synchronize it with that of the Earth.  If, indeed, historical events do repeat in cycles, what synchronous event will come to pass 2160 years after the victorious Hero’s Journey of the One whose birthday we celebrate at Christmas? Will we have finally come clear of fear and prejudice and truly love one another as ourselves and partake of the Elixir of Immortality?  I hope and pray we will not have to wait that long. I wouldn’t mind coming back for that either.  

Until my next post . . .

just be who you are: love.

Anthony 

 

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Aquarian Age, Conscious Evolution, Consciousness, Cycles within cycles, David Wilcock, Dr. Palombo's blog, Ending Wars, Global Adversary, Golden Age, History Repeats itself, Iranian Nuclear Deal, Middle East, Origin of Man, Our Origin, Prophet Daniel, Psychopaths, Putin, The Hero's Journey, The Synchronicity Key, Ukraine, Wars

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On Human Relations —- part 4: A New Relation with Iran? page 2

My Chorale PicSecretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, negotiators for their nations, the US and Iran respectively, had become friends. Their relationship was interfering with their work. The story as told by Robin Wright in the July issue of THE NEW YORKER, is one every adult American needs to read in order to understand the larger picture: that of the people of Iran who, after living in a “pariah nation” for decades “crave normalcy,” re-entry into the world community, and a relationship with the outside world — but on their own terms. In my previous post, I conveyed their story, noting that in ten to fifteen years, when the Iranian Nuclear Deal will expire, there will be a new generation at the helm of government in Iran. The old hard-liners of today will have aged or passed away. In this post I wish to tell the rest of the story of how the members of the negotiating teams found their new-found relationships and friendships getting in the way of their negotiations. It’s a story well worth the read. It’s all about human relations. Enjoy the read.

The final deadline was supposed to be June 30th. The negotiating teams worked throughout June to get the talks back on track. Kerry and Zarif returned to Vienna for the final round on June 28th, two days before the deadline. They missed it. The major powers had to extend it three times. Ministers from other countries flew in and out of Vienna as the U.S. and Iranian teams debated their differences.

The diplomacy was supposed to be transactional. But at moments it was transformational, for two countries at odds about so much else. For twenty months, the Americans and the Iranians ate separately, often in small, adjacent dining areas. ”At a certain point, it just started to feel strange that they had never actually shared a meal together,” Kerry’s aide said. Zarif invited Kerry and his team to lunch on July 4th in the Iranians’ dining room, where he had ordered Persian food. “It was ten times better than the food we ate on our side of the house,” the aide told me. “It was a moment where it was clear–we knew it, sort of, without remarking on it–that these relationships had really developed over time.” Kerry and Zarif commiserated about pressures at home. Kerry mentioned members of Congress who were complaining that local political ads already opposed any deal with Iran. Zarif told Kerry about an Iranian newspaper warning that he shouldn’t come home if he compromised too much with the Americans.

The chasm was still deep. “Even when we can be, you know, just conversational with each other, there can come a moment in the middle of that–I would say them, more–when we revert back to form,” the State Department official said. “It can all of a sudden come out of the blue, when I think they can realize they’ve gotten too familiar.”

The next meltdown was on July 5th. The Iranians regularly griped about the indignity of international sanctions tarnishing a historic civilization and causing unnecessary suffering. During one long-winded tirade by Zarif, Kerry cut him off: “You know, you’re not the only nation with pride.”Tensions increased that afternoon. When Kerry and Zarif started shouting at each other, a Kerry staffer slipped in to say that they could be heard down the corridors of the Palais Coburg.

The next night, with another deadline imminent, Kerry offered Zarif a package deal, to get beyond the inteminable issue-by-issue squabbles. In a meeting with the major powers, Iran accused them of pulling back from agreed terms. At one point, Zarif shouted, “Never threaten an Iranian!” (When news of the flap spread, #neverthreatenaniranian quickly became a popular Twitter hashtag.)

“Or a Russian!” Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said, in an attempt to break the tension. Subsequent reporting implied that Russia sided with Iran, a long-standing ally. In fact, the Americans claimed, Lavrov regularly played a constructive role in calming the emotional Zarif.

The U.S. and Iran remained so far apart that Kerry told Zarif and the other foreign ministers that he was prepared to leave the next day. He would be available by phone if Zarif wanted to negotiate seriously. ”A lot of us felt, at that point, like we were in real trouble,” Kerry’s aide said. The next day, Zarif brought a point-by-point response to the proposal.

”It’s such a complex set of relationships,” the State Department official said. “We know each other. All of the mistrust that has been there for these decades remains. It’s not gone. It’s incredibly present all the time. But it fights against the fact that we’ve spent two years getting to know each other.”

Over the next week, negotiations sometimes drifted, as the parties nibbled away at differences. The terms to limit Iran’s nuclear program were wrapped up first. The most sensitive issues often had a link to Iran’s milltary, especially the powerful Revolutionary Guards. The final differences were sorted out in a meeting, shortly before midnight, on July 13th, with Kerry, Zarif, and Federica Mogherini, of the European Union. “They basically kicked everybody out who wasn’t a minister and figured out the end,” Kerry’s aide said.

The next morning, Iran and the six major powers met to formally confirm the terms. The final statement read, “With courage, political will, mutual respect, and leadership, we delivered on what the world was hoping for: a shared commitment to peace and to join hands in order to make our world safer.”

Afterward, each minister made remarks about the collaboration. Kerry, who spoke last, recalled going off to war as a young man, the traumatic experience of Vietnam, and his commitment, when he returned, to end that war. The diplomacy with Iran, he told his peers, was one time that he could prevent the horrors of war.

At the end of Kerry’s comments, his eyes welled up, his aide said. Others teared up, too, including the Iranians. Then everyone applauded.  Zarif went off to make a brief announcement with Mogherini, while Kerry watched, on an iPad, President Obama’s remarks from the White House about the potentially historic deal. When Zarif finished, he walked backstage and patted Kerry on the shoulder. They shook hands, the aide recounted. “And that’s how he said goodbye.”

Robin Wright ends her article — yes, the author is a woman, who alone could write an article such as this conveying the emotional climate that permeated these negotiations with so much insightful detail — with promising, though typically conservative patriarchal, comments from General Martin Dempsey.

“We will always have military options,” General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the final days of diplomacy. “And a massive ordnance penetrator is one of them.” A new bomb to take out a future Iranian bomb.

“Everyone who believes that overnight this relationship is going to change is naive as hell,” the senior State Department official told me. “It’s not. It’s just too deep–particularly among Iranian government officials, many of whom were part of the revolution. So there may be a generational shift that has to take place everywhere. It’s going to take time. It’s going to take a lot of time.”♦

Yes, “a generational shift” is underway already, both here in America and in Iran and the rest of the world. The new generation calls for an end to wars. Enough is enough!

I don’t know about you, but I get choked up reading this report. I suppose it’s because I know that, left to ourselves, we the people would find a way to live in peace and harmony with one another. I long for that, as I’m sure we all do. Seeing these human beings torn between their own natural inner compulsion to relate to one another as people just like themselves, even as friends, and their nations’ political agendas, that had ironically brought them together in this crucible, just pierces my heart and brings tears to my eyes. O God, let it be so for the peoples of all nations! Let us relate to one another as members of one species with one common purpose: the creation of the beautiful and harmonious world on this beautiful harmonious planet. Let it be so. ♥ (See the video link below for Colin Powell’s interview on Meet The Press.)

Anthony Palombo, DC

Read my Health Light Newsletter online at LiftingTones.com. Current topic: Update on cell phone hazards.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/09/06/colin-powell-says-what-many-conservatives-wont-admit-obama-made-good-deal-with-iran-video/

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Global Events, Human Relations, Iranian Nuclear Deal, The Iranian People

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On Human Relations, part 4: A New Relationship with Iran?

“TEHRAN’S PROMISE  — The revolution’s midlife crisis and the nuclear deal.”

My Chorale PicTHE NEW YORKER this month features an excellent and well written article by Robin Wright on the Iranian Nuclear deal. I’m bringing it into my blog, and particularly into this series on human relations, because it’s about the personal relationship between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, a relationship that, in my opinion, was made in heaven for the specific purpose of bringing about this Nuclear deal with Iran—and more. It opened a window to the world through which the promise of a new relationship between the people of Iran and the rest of the world can be clearly seen, even through the distracting and manipulative cloud of propaganda Washington Conservatives have been putting before the American people via the media.

The relationship between these two men had its beginnings back in 2003 when Zarif was Iran’s United Nations Ambassador.  Kerry and Zarif “played pivotal roles in getting the process (of the Nuclear deal) started, through back channels: in 2003, as Iran’s U.N. Ambassador, Zarif orchestrated a secret overture, nicknamed ‘the grand bargain.’” This initiative is what set things in motion and led to an unannounced trip in 2011 by John Kerry, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “to explore an offer by the Sultan Oman to host covert diplomacy. That led to five secret rounds of lower-level U.S.-Iran talks, in Muscat, in 2013.”

Here’s what really piqued my interest in this relationship.

The most serious diplomacy since Washington severed relations with Tehran, in 1980, began shortly after Kerry and Zarif were appointed as their nations’ top diplomats. Their first meeting, in September, 2013, was supposed to be a handshake and an exchange of pleasantries in a United Nations hallway. The idea was to “get out without causing any incidents and build from there,” a Kerry aide recounted. But, at the last minute, Kerry decided to pull Zarif into an empty office, near the Security Council chamber, for a substantive conversation.

“Kerry’s whole approach to diplomacy . . . is premised on the belief that personal relationships matter, because they enable you to get things done, even in very difficult situations,” the aide said. “It was Kerry’s belief that this was going to be a relationship that would really matter.” Zarif was willing. The two men talked, alone, for almost thirty minutes.

The rest of the story is now copy for the history books. “The Iran deal, announced on July 14th, capped a dozen years of secret overtures, false starts, clandestine meetings, and unpublished correspondence between Washington and Tehran.

THE POLITICS OF THE PEOPLE

A huge transition is underway in Iran between the old revolutionary leadership and the new generation. The article’s parallel and probably more significant theme is about the people of Iran, the next generation of young people who represent more than sixty percent of Iran’s eighty-million people, “A baby-boom generation, born after the revolution, (that) doesn’t share all of its priority.” Iran’s youth are not so enamored by the hard-liners’ religious fanaticism over an ideal Islamic state.  They are more interested in pursuing and engaging the rising tide of modern technologies flooding Iran via the internet. Wright offers a canny insight into the climate being generated by Iran’s public that “clearly wants reentry” into the larger world of commerce and culture they have been insulated against for decades by their revolutionary elders, the majority of which are “over the hill” in age and soon to be on their way out literally.  The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, himself turns seventy-six this month.

“The original generation of revolutionaries will disappear in the next ten years,” Saeed Laylaz, an economist and a former adviser to President Khatami, said. Laylaz, who was imprisoned for a year after the 2009 election, added, “The new assembly [the Assembly of Experts, a group of eighty-six theologians] will reflect the new generation.”

All of Khomeini’s grandchildren—there are fifteen—back reformers. . . .  Half a dozen of the grandchildren were educated in the West. Some of the grandchildren have considered running for parliament of the assembly. . . .  A loose coalition of reformers, moderates, and centrists hopes to flood the field with candidates, so that even if they are disqualified in large numbers many of them can still compete.

As Robin Wright describes the rising tide of liberal youthful energy,

“It’ a tsunami,” Said Rahmani, the C.E.O. of Sarava, Iran’s first venture capital fund, told me. “This generation is worldly. They’re educated. They work. They have spending power. They’re not dependent on anyone. They have a different range of thinking.”

These days, the energy—and the locus or charting Iran’s future—is less in heady debates about the ideal Islamic state than in a practical scramble to exploit twenty-first-century technology to change society. More than a third of the population uses the Internet. Giant billboards for a new smart-phone model were plastered across Tehran this summer: “NEXT IS NOW.”

Iran has its Amazon.com in Digikala, which accounts for more than eighty percent of online retail, valued recently at a hundred-and-fifty million dollars, started up by a set of thirty-six year old twins. Online commerce is increasingly defining market prices in Iran.

WESTERN INFLUENCE

“America, particularly, haunts Iran,” Robin writes. “. . . After decades of living is a pariah nation, Iranians seem to crave normalcy—but on their own terms. Figuring out their relationship with the outside world is a big part of the transition. They have tried repeatedly and failed.”

The chant “DEATH TO AMERICA!” we hear so much talk about in the arguments against the Iranian Nuclear Deal in the halls of Congress and in Western media propaganda is limited only to Friday night Islamic prayer meetings. It is not the cry of the people.

“’Death to America’? This is politics and not related to people’s thinking,” Elnaz Mobahat, the owner of Manhattan Grill, one of Tehran’s chic new restaurants, told me. The place is adorned with American kitsch. One wall features photographs of sports stars, including Tiger Woods. “There are fourteen million people in greater Tehran, and maybe one hundred thousand attend Friday prayers,” she said. “Most people say we should talk to the Americans and solve our differences. We can both benefit. There are many investments opportunities in the oil and food industries.” She pointed to the ketchup bottles on every table. “Look, we use Heinz!”

A RELATIONSHIP FORGED IN FIRE

John Kerry and Mohammed Karif brought to the negotiating table the raging undercurrents of their nations’ turbulent warring histories and deeply scarred collective psyches conditioned by a track record of dishonesty, deception and consequent mistrust and paranoia. They were thrust by the gods of fate into a crucible together to process the relationship between their respective nations and between Iran and Israel and all the other nations in the world. And that crucible served its purpose by giving space for the many factors that make up human relations to be brought forth and released under pressure into the cauldron of heated debate and negotiation. The Iranian Nuclear Deal was not made in peaceful interchanges. It was forged in fire.  Robin Wright tells how it went down in all of its emotional and frustrating details.

It got much harder over time. The world’s five other major powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia—were technically equal players. But the United States increasingly took the lead in one-on-one meetings with the Iranians. More than a year after that first encounter, the chasm on core issues was still deep, despite an interim Joint Plan of Action, a confidence-building step that curtailed Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for modest sanctions relief. It did not address long-term limits or rewards.

As the original deadline for a final deal loomed, last November, Kerry and Zarif met in Oman. The senior State Department official described the meeting as “extremely contentious.”

Kerry’s aide said, “Both sides left thinking that we had just spent a lot of hours and a lot of time under very tense conditions and in very tense conversations that made little progress.” A deal looked doubtful. A few days later, the six powers agreed to extend the deadline until June 30th.

In February and again in March, Kerry was on the verge of backing away from the conversations entirely, US officials told me. On February 21st, as Kerry was scheduled to fly from London to Geneva, Wendy Sherman, the Under-Secretary of State and chief nuclear negotiator, called him to say, “We are nowhere.” Iran was backtracking. “I really don’t think you can come under these circumstances,” she said. Kerry instructed her to tell the Iranians that he would skip Geneva and fly home. The next morning, Iran was more forthcoming, and Kerry subsequently flew to Switzerland.

On March 27th, in Lausanne, tempers flared three nights before the deadline of a so-called Framework to define what each side would accept in a final deal. At the last minute, negotiating with the Americans, Iran took an important matter off the table. The five other major powers were supposed to show up within a day, but there was so much left unresolved that Kerry decided he might have to abort. He arranged to go to Zarif’s suite. At 10 P.M., they met alone. Kerry’s style is to coax rather than threaten. But this time, two US. officials told me, Kerry was blunt. He told Zarif that unless there was progress the sessions were “basically done.”The next day, the issue was back on the table. Six days later, the major powers and Iran
announced the outlines of a potential agreement.

“There were moments when you just had to push through,” Kerry’s aide said. The most confrontational exchange took place on May 30th. The talks were “brutal, just brutal,” the State Department official recalled. According to Kerry’s aide, “It was a lot of the two sides banging their heads against each other.” At one point, Zarif got up, walked around the room, and announced, “I have to leave.” He then sat on a chair against a wall and put his head in his hands.

Kerry, known for being unflappable, lost it, too. Toward the end of six difficult hours, he slammed his hand down on the conference table so hard that his pen flew across the table and hit one of the Iranians. “It stunned everyone, because it was so out of character,” the State Department official said.

Both sides left Geneva feeling deeply pessimistic. The next day, Kerry vented his frustration by taking a vigorous ride from Geneva into France on his racing bike, which he often brings on trips.  As he was starting up the challenging Col de la Colombiere, he rode into a curb and flew off the bike. His right femur was badly broken, and he had to be medevaced to Boston for surgery. After the news broke, one of the first e-mails he received was from Zarif, wishing him well.

Love and mutual respect held these two men together through thick and thin. Few if any in our halls of Congress know what took place at these negotiations. Nor do they seem to care. Who among them takes into account that in ten years when this deal expires the old hard-line leaders in Iran will have been replaced by the younger generation of reformers who want more than anything to be in a peaceful and fruitful working relationship with the other nations of the world, particularly with America? And I don’t think they want to annihilate Israel, nor develop nuclear bombs. We simply need to trust that the process that brought these two men together will help us forge a new relationship with Iran. An irresistible force was set in motion based on mutual love and respect. And love never fails.  It’s at the heart of all meaningful relationships.

I will share more from this important article in a couple of weeks. I hope you have enjoyed reading about this historical and significant development in the Middle East as much as I did. Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved

Anthony Palombo, DC

Read my HealthLight Newsletter online at LiftingTones.com.

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2015, Iranian Nuclear Deal, On Human Relations, The Iranian People

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