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Posts tagged ‘Iranian Nuclear Deal’

Wheels Within Wheels: Breaking the Cycles of War, part 4 (Reposting)

WITH THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR once again in the news engendering fear in the mass consciousness, I thought to repost a blog articles from last year completing a series on “Breaking the Cycles of War.” This time around, it isn’t only Putin dangling the nuclear carrot in the face of the West and NATO nations closing in on Russia. The cabal in the US and UK has been generating and fostering animosity against Russia in its ongoing efforts to maintain a “forever war” agenda.

My poet friend, Don Hynes, posted this comment on my previous blog post which I feel is worth republishing here.

Thank you for this post. It is well that humanity becomes aware of “sleepwalking” into nuclear confrontation. Our individual determination to peaceful resolution of the Ukraine and any conflict are key to how we might regain peace in this world.

Those who are most in need of such awakening are the collective “West,” i.e. US and EU. Just a few years ago one of the most educated populations in the world accepted the “science” about Covid and the Covid Vaxx that was amplified by weaponized empathy. The progression in our culture was from anti-Trump (I am not a Trump supporter) to Covid fear to mandated Vaxx to Ukraine war. The text in this progression was lies, weaponized empathy, government control and now war.

I believe the West is in an adolescent state of maturity. Self preoccupied with image, status and social hierarchy, the population is easily controlled and has not gone through the necessary steps to develop psychological and spiritual maturity. How many put the Ukraine flags on their various social media accounts without understanding the US engineered Maidan coup in 2014, the targeted murder of thousands of Russian speaking people in eastern Ukraine, the US funded and operated biolabs in eastern Ukraine, the moving of missiles into every eastern Europe member of NATO and which was in process in Ukraine when Putin struck back.

The engendered public hostility against Russia was instigated and funded by the failed Clinton campaign to cover their disastrous loss in 2016 and carried on throughout the Trump presidency. Trump’s own bellicosity did little to temper the growing anti-Russia sentiment, used by the US government to further enrich the military industrial surveillance complex that is devouring the wealth of the US and laying waste to many areas of the globe through senselessly provoked war.

The reason why most in the West think Russia is threatening nuclear confrontation is because those same threats that originate in the US and UK governments receive no press coverage, then when the Russian Foreign Minister or President responds the headlines are blared to the gullible population. The nonsense that Ukraine might be winning the war is carried across most if not all the major news outlets whereas the reality is that Ukraine has suffered horrendous casualties with a whole generation of Ukrainian men needlessly slaughtered.

As you know I am a very strong advocate for peace and peaceful resolution of conflict. I share this perspective with you in the spirit of de-escalation your post promotes, which I agree is critical at this time.

Holding Steady blog post

* * *

REPOSTING OF EXCERPTS FROM “Wheels Within Wheels: Breaking the Cycles of War”

As hard as the Cabal* tried to instigate wars, there inevitably appeared on the scene a hero whose actions averted a US attack on a Middle East country and a nuclear conflagration. Such was the case with Iran and Afghanistan. I will let David Wilcock tell how it all unfolded in this excerpt from his thoroughly researched and fascinating book The Synchronicity Key. 

THE SKY IS NOT FALLING—ONLY OUR BLINDFOLDS ARE

Smart Enough Not to Take the Bait

I was very relieved to discover that the United States appears to be in­creasingly pulling away from the Roman wars that occurred in the Age of Aries. The potential triggers were still offered to the public, right on schedule, but we finally got smart enough not to take the bait. Masson believed that the period from 1988 to 1992 could be as dangerous as the Cuban Missile Crisis nuclear showdown, if not more so — but the proxywar with the USSR in Afghanistan did not turn into a world nuclear Armageddon. 

We also saw the original, short-lived Gulf War in Iraq, known as Desert Storm, in the key risk period of 1988 to 1992. This war began on August 2, 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Aerial bom­bardment of Iraq began on January 17, 1991. Iraq declared a cease-fire only one hundred hours after the February 24, 1991, start of the ground campaign. Although many people died in the bombardment, Desert Storm was nowhere near the global disaster that Masson had feared it could have been if the zodiac cycle had exerted the full force of seem­ingly ancient Roman wars upon the destiny of the United States.

I grad­uated from high school in 1991, and that was also the last year I watched television on a regular basis. Since there was no Internet back then, I quickly made friends with books, because every time I turned on the television during the Gulf War, attractive female newscasters and un­smiling male anchors were interviewing “experts” who insisted the entire Middle East was about to light up like a huge, fiery cauldron of violence. Everyone was afraid that World War III was about to begin, fulfilling biblical prophecy — but the other Middle Eastern countries never took the bait. After all this time, they finally broke the old pattern and real­ized that the nemesis was trying to provoke them into having a violent reaction, in order to cause much greater harm — with vastly superior weapons.

American Heroes Block “Biblical Armageddon” in 2006

As we learned in the previous chapter, the period 1988 to 1992 in the Age of Pisces corresponds to Rome’s second war with Macedonia — from 172 to 168 B.C. — in the Age of Aries. The next significant event was Rome’s war against Lusitania, beginning in 154 B.C. When we look 2,160 years into the future, this brings us to the year 2006. Although it may seem, at first, that nothing significant happened in 2006, we did actually come very close to a disastrous war that same year.

On March 16, 2006, the United States formally declared war against Iran. The declaration appeared in that day’s National Security Strategy announcement: “We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran …. When the consequences of an attack with WMD are potentially so dev­astating, we cannot afford to stand idly by as grave dangers materialize.”

This declaration also made it clear that the United States would use nuclear weapons to fight this conflict.” This was very serious, and it appeared that a nuclear first strike against Iran was imminent. The Cabal* wanted their biblical Armageddon as soon as possible. Thankfully, peo­ple in key positions rose to stop the cycle of violence from playing out as it had in Rome during the Age of Aries. John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, became the hero who directly confronted the nemesis when he told the press in April 2006 that it would be “a number of years off” before Iran would be “likely to have enough fissile material to assemble into or to put into a nuclear weapon—perhaps into the next decade.”

A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that made the same conclu­sions about Iran was held up for more than a year by the Bush adminis­tration. It was finally released on December 4, 2007: “We judge that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program. Tehran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007. We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 20I5.”

The very beginning of this ground-breaking report said, “This NIE does not assume that Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons.” The words “does not” were italicized in the original document. As of this writ­ing in 20I3, it’s now been seven years since Rome started fighting the Lusitanian War in the previous zodiac cycle, during the Age of Aries­ but we still haven’t seen any overt aggression toward Iran. Nor are there any other major new wars. The United States does still maintain a pres­ence in Afghanistan but has now largely pulled out of Iraq. I was quite relieved to discover that the old cycles finally appear to be breaking down.

If forgiveness is the key that will stop the Wheel of Karma from spinning, then it appears we are finally learning to love and accept one another. The nemesis can continue to harm us only if we fail to learn the lessons of forgiveness — and accept the temptation to turn against one another.

We Can Change the Outcome

It is very important to remember that we can change the outcome in these cycles. We are not trapped — and we do not need to keep repeating the same wars and atrocities again and again. As we learned earlier, we now have direct scientific proof that a small group of people can have a major effect on the behavior of the entire planet for the positive. Specifi­cally, a group of seven thousand ordinary people was able to reduce worldwide terrorism by 72 percent — simply by meditating. They had similarly powerful effects in stopping wars, violent outbreaks, and loss of life. Fifty different scientific studies have validated this meditation ef­fect. This proves that the cycles are not fixed. Wars will not keep repeat­ing, right on schedule. We can change the outcome. The lesson is that if enough of us begin practicing peace in our lives, the ancient story finally achieves its purpose in bringing all of us face-to-face with the nemesis, so we can integrate our ego and learn not to blame one another for our feelings of pain, fear, and anger. We can finally master the lessons this pattern of archetypes is teaching us — and stop projecting our shadow onto others by making them into our nemeses.

We may then experience a stunning, worldwide curtain call, such as in a full breakdown of government, media, and financial secrecy. Based on the testimonies of multiple high-ranking witnesses I have personally interviewed, once the Cabal is fully exposed on the world stage, this will quickly lead to a disclosure of the advanced human relatives who have been assisting us — and were seen as gods in every ancient culture on earth. These people have been here all along but appear to have largely stepped behind the curtain since the rise of Islam in the 700’s in order to allow us to become a modern society. Because they remain shielded from public view, each person has the freedom to accept or reject the idea of their presence. This premise of free will is very important in the Law of One series, but once we shift into fourth density, at the end of the twenty-five-thousand-year cycle, everything changes. Apparently, as we settle into this new reality, we will graduate into an entirely new time structure with surprisingly different rules.

I have often said that if reincarnation has been proven to be a scientific fact, how can we assume that we will just keep coming back and repeating the same lessons, lifetime after lifetime? Isn’t there a point at which we learn the greatest teachings of the Hero’s Journey — and are now ready to step into a higher level of our own human evolution? (Wilcock, THE SYNCHRONICITY KEY)

_______________________________________________________________

ASCENSION 2019

Our Earth and the human species are about to step into a higher level of evolution. Between now and my next series, make time and space available to view this presentation by David Wilcock on the spiritual implications of what’s happening in our world today.  I’ve been following David for several years and I am more and more convinced that he is indeed the reincarnation of Edgar Casey. His message here is for the entire human race — at least for those of us who are awake and available to hear it.  The fact that you are following this blog indicates a heightened level of wakefulness.  His is an urgent message that I know you will appreciate hearing.  

Until my next post, 

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

*FOOTNOTE: The Federal Reserve: The Heart of the Cabal

Michel Helmer did not detect a cyclical connection between the Roman Empire and the United States before 1896. This was the year that big­ business bankers began seeing their plans realized with the election of the imperialist president McKinley. Under McKinley’s reign, the Cabal soon began an unprecedented expansion of its power, using the United States as its new staging area. After many years of planning, the big bankers — such as the Rockefeller-Standard Oil dynasty in America and the Rothschild banking dynasty in Europe — pooled their resources to create the Federal Reserve in 1913. The creation of the Federal Reserve effectively overthrew the US Constitution. Harry V. Martin published the following research online in 1995, before so many others discovered the same facts. Now, even the corporate media is increasingly beginning to discuss this hidden truth. The number of people who know the real story of the Federal Reserve has skyrocketed since I first began research­ing this mystery in 1992. According to Martin, “Article I, Section 8, clause 5 of the United States Constitution provides that Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof, and of any foreign coins. But that is not the case. The United States government has no power to issue money, control the flow of money, or to even distribute it. That belongs to a private corporation, registered in the State of Delaware—the Federal Reserve Bank.”

Category:

Apocalypse, Aquarian Age, Ascension, Conscious Evolution, David Wilcock, Dr. Palombo's blog, Edgar Cayce Reincarnated, Ending Wars, Evolution, History Repeats itself, Middle East, The Cabal, The Hero's Journey, The Nemesis, The Synchronicity Key, Transmutation, Zodiac Cycles & Wars

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Wheels Within Wheels: Breaking the Cycles of War, part 4

This will be my final post of this series. Enough already about ancient Roman wars repeating during the last zodiac cycle. It’s time to move on to  something a bit more NOW. This final post is about events that are at least current in our recent history.  

As hard as the Cabal* tried to instigate wars, there inevitably appeared on the scene a hero whose actions averted a US attack on a Middle East country and a nuclear conflagration. Such was the case with Iran and Afghanistan. I will let David Wilcock tell how it all unfolded in this excerpt from his thoroughly researched and fascinating book The Synchronicity Key. 

THE SKY IS NOT FALLING—ONLY OUR BLINDFOLDS ARE

Smart Enough Not to Take the Bait

I was very relieved to discover that the United States appears to be in­creasingly pulling away from the Roman wars that occurred in the Age of Aries. The potential triggers were still offered to the public, right on schedule, but we finally got smart enough not to take the bait. Masson believed that the period from 1988 to 1992 could be as dangerous as the Cuban Missile Crisis nuclear showdown, if not more so — but the proxywar with the USSR in Afghanistan did not turn into a world nuclear Armageddon. 

We also saw the original, short-lived Gulf War in Iraq, known as Desert Storm, in the key risk period of 1988 to 1992. This war began on August 2, 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Aerial bom­bardment of Iraq began on January 17, 1991. Iraq declared a cease-fire only one hundred hours after the February 24, 1991, start of the ground campaign. Although many people died in the bombardment, Desert Storm was nowhere near the global disaster that Masson had feared it could have been if the zodiac cycle had exerted the full force of seem­ingly ancient Roman wars upon the destiny of the United States.

I grad­uated from high school in 1991, and that was also the last year I watched television on a regular basis. Since there was no Internet back then, I quickly made friends with books, because every time I turned on the television during the Gulf War, attractive female newscasters and un­smiling male anchors were interviewing “experts” who insisted the entire Middle East was about to light up like a huge, fiery cauldron of violence. Everyone was afraid that World War III was about to begin, fulfilling biblical prophecy — but the other Middle Eastern countries never took the bait. After all this time, they finally broke the old pattern and real­ized that the nemesis was trying to provoke them into having a violent reaction, in order to cause much greater harm — with vastly superior weapons.

American Heroes Block “Biblical Armageddon” in 2006

As we learned in the previous chapter, the period 1988 to 1992 in the Age of Pisces corresponds to Rome’s second war with Macedonia — from 172 to 168 B.C. — in the Age of Aries. The next significant event was Rome’s war against Lusitania, beginning in 154 B.C. When we look 2,160 years into the future, this brings us to the year 2006. Although it may seem, at first, that nothing significant happened in 2006, we did actually come very close to a disastrous war that same year.

On March 16, 2006, the United States formally declared war against Iran. The declaration appeared in that day’s National Security Strategy announcement: “We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran …. When the consequences of an attack with WMD are potentially so dev­astating, we cannot afford to stand idly by as grave dangers materialize.”

This declaration also made it clear that the United States would use nuclear weapons to fight this conflict.” This was very serious, and it appeared that a nuclear first strike against Iran was imminent. The Cabal* wanted their biblical Armageddon as soon as possible. Thankfully, peo­ple in key positions rose to stop the cycle of violence from playing out as it had in Rome during the Age of Aries. John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, became the hero who directly confronted the nemesis when he told the press in April 2006 that it would be “a number of years off” before Iran would be “likely to have enough fissile material to assemble into or to put into a nuclear weapon—perhaps into the next decade.”

A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that made the same conclu­sions about Iran was held up for more than a year by the Bush adminis­tration. It was finally released on December 4, 2007: “We judge that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program. Tehran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007. We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 20I5.”

The very beginning of this ground-breaking report said, “This NIE does not assume that Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons.” The words “does not” were italicized in the original document. As of this writ­ing in 20I3, it’s now been seven years since Rome started fighting the Lusitanian War in the previous zodiac cycle, during the Age of Aries­ but we still haven’t seen any overt aggression toward Iran. Nor are there any other major new wars. The United States does still maintain a pres­ence in Afghanistan but has now largely pulled out of Iraq. I was quite relieved to discover that the old cycles finally appear to be breaking down.

If forgiveness is the key that will stop the Wheel of Karma from spinning, then it appears we are finally learning to love and accept one another. The nemesis can continue to harm us only if we fail to learn the lessons of forgiveness — and accept the temptation to turn against one another.

We Can Change the Outcome

It is very important to remember that we can change the outcome in these cycles. We are not trapped — and we do not need to keep repeating the same wars and atrocities again and again. As we learned earlier, we now have direct scientific proof that a small group of people can have a major effect on the behavior of the entire planet for the positive. Specifi­cally, a group of seven thousand ordinary people was able to reduce worldwide terrorism by 72 percent — simply by meditating. They had similarly powerful effects in stopping wars, violent outbreaks, and loss of life. Fifty different scientific studies have validated this meditation ef­fect. This proves that the cycles are not fixed. Wars will not keep repeat­ing, right on schedule. We can change the outcome. The lesson is that if enough of us begin practicing peace in our lives, the ancient story finally achieves its purpose in bringing all of us face-to-face with the nemesis, so we can integrate our ego and learn not to blame one another for our feelings of pain, fear, and anger. We can finally master the lessons this pattern of archetypes is teaching us — and stop projecting our shadow onto others by making them into our nemeses.

We may then experience a stunning, worldwide curtain call, such as in a full breakdown of government, media, and financial secrecy. Based on the testimonies of multiple high-ranking witnesses I have personally interviewed, once the Cabal is fully exposed on the world stage, this will quickly lead to a disclosure of the advanced human relatives who have been assisting us — and were seen as gods in every ancient culture on earth. These people have been here all along but appear to have largely stepped behind the curtain since the rise of Islam in the 700’s in order to allow us to become a modern society. Because they remain shielded from public view, each person has the freedom to accept or reject the idea of their presence. This premise of free will is very important in the Law of One series, but once we shift into fourth density, at the end of the twenty-five-thousand-year cycle, everything changes. Apparently, as we settle into this new reality, we will graduate into an entirely new time structure with surprisingly different rules.

I have often said that if reincarnation has been proven to be a scientific fact, how can we assume that we will just keep coming back and repeating the same lessons, lifetime after lifetime? Isn’t there a point at which we learn the greatest teachings of the Hero’s Journey — and are now ready to step into a higher level of our own human evolution? (Wilcock, THE SYNCHRONICITY KEY)

_______________________________________________________________

ASCENSION 2019

Our Earth and the human species are about to step into a higher level of evolution. Between now and my next series, make time and space available to view this presentation by David Wilcock on the spiritual implications of what’s happening in our world today.  I’ve been following David for several years and I am more and more convinced that he is indeed the reincarnation of Edgar Casey. His message here is for the entire human race — at least for those of us who are awake and available to hear it.  The fact that you are following this blog indicates a heightened level of wakefulness.  His is an urgent message that I know you will appreciate hearing.  

Until my next post, 

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

https://youtu.be/S_QkJgMraSo

*FOOTNOTE: The Federal Reserve: The Heart of the Cabal

Michel Helmer did not detect a cyclical connection between the Roman Empire and the United States before 1896. This was the year that big­ business bankers began seeing their plans realized with the election of the imperialist president McKinley. Under McKinley’s reign, the Cabal soon began an unprecedented expansion of its power, using the United States as its new staging area. After many years of planning, the big bankers-such as the Rockefeller-Standard Oil dynasty in America and the Rothschild banking dynasty in Europe-pooled their resources to create the Federal Reserve in 1913. The creation of the Federal Reserve effectively overthrew the US Constitution. Harry V. Martin published the following research online in 1995, before so many others discovered the same facts. Now, even the corporate media is increasingly beginning to discuss this hidden truth. The number of people who know the real story of the Federal Reserve has skyrocketed since I first began research­ing this mystery in 1992. According to Martin, “Article I, Section 8, clause 5 of the United States Constitution provides that Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof, and of any foreign coins. But that is not the case. The United States government has no power to issue money, control the flow of money, or to even distribute it. That belongs to a private corporation, registered in the State of Delaware—the Federal Reserve Bank.”

Category:

Apocalypse, Aquarian Age, Ascension, Conscious Evolution, David Wilcock, Dr. Palombo's blog, Edgar Cayce Reincarnated, Ending Wars, Evolution, History Repeats itself, Middle East, The Cabal, The Hero's Journey, The Nemesis, The Synchronicity Key, Transmutation, Zodiac Cycles & 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/

Category:

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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