US engaged in Iran talks to exercise power: American journalist

The United States is participating in the Iran nuclear talks in an attempt to constrain Tehran and exercise its power over the country, not over a “fictional nuclear weapons program,” a political activist and radio host in New York says.

“The United States has tried one way or another to re-colonize Iran and the people of Iran have stood up to against that successfully,” Don DeBar told Press TV on Tuesday.

“That is what drives the US attempts to constrain Iran, to wreck its economy, to exercise power over it from the places that it still can exert power,” DeBar said.

“These talks are the negotiations over that essentially, not over a fictional nuclear weapons program,” he added.

US Senator Tom Cotton, known for his close links with American neoconservatives, has called on President Barack Obama to “be strong” and extend the Iran nuclear talks beyond a June 30 deadline until demands are met.

In an article published on Monday, the Republican lawmaker from Arkansas wrote that what the Iranian leaders “respect is strength.”

"He should continue talks past tomorrow's artificial deadline for however long it takes to eliminate Iran's nuclear weapons capability," added Cotton, the purported author of a controversial GOP letter to Iran's leaders over nuclear negotiations.

DeBar dismissed the senator’s opinion over Iran’s nuclear program as “worthless.”

“The entire construct around the argument between Cotton and Obama is a falsehood, it’s a delusion, it’s a fever dream,” he observed.

In a bizarre move in March, a group of 47 Republican senators sent an open letter to Iran’s leaders, warning that whatever agreement reached with Obama would be a “mere executive agreement” and that Congress could ultimately walk away from any deal with Tehran upon review.

Tom Cotton claimed that he had drafted the letter. However, independent analysts say the letter was actually written by William Kristol, a US neoconservative political analyst and the founder of the Emergency Committee for Israel.

AHT/GJH

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