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Israel wants Iran sanctions reimposed: Analyst

Sunday, 17 January 2016 4:34 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 17 January 2016 5:52 PM ]

Israel and its lobby in the US are hard at work to disrupt the historic nuclear agreement with Iran, Lendman says.

The US government’s lifting of its illegal nuclear-related sanctions against Iran was long overdue as Tehran has never sought nuclear weapons despite what the West and Israel were trying to assert, says an American author and radio host.

On Saturday, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order lifting US economic sanctions on Iran.

Obama’s move came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran has implemented its commitments made in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 - the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany on July 14, 2015.

“Yesterday in Vienna should have been a momentous time for celebration after many many years, decades of US sanctions illegally imposed on Iran without the Security Council authorization,” Stephen Lendman told Press TV on Sunday.

“It should have been a glorious time, and it certainly is a change from things that have gone on before, because officially as of now the international sanctions and the US sanctions on Iran, relating to its nuclear program, are lifted,” he added.

This is while on Sunday, the US Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Iran over its missile program.

Lendman noted that many Democrats and Republicans have expressed nothing but hostility towards Iran with regards to the landmark deal.

Israel, along with many politicians and lobbies inside the US, are still pushing hard to disrupt the agreement, the Chicago-based author added.

“Israel and its lobby, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), are absolutely unrelenting in wanting the nuclear deal undermined, in wanting the lifted sanctions re-imposed, in wanting the harshest measures imposed against Iran, and all of this is completely illegitimate and entirely for political reasons,” he further explained.

AIPAC has been at the forefront of the campaign against the historic accord over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. It has been leading a massive campaign to defeat the deal by pressuring the Republican-dominated Congress.

“Everybody knows that Iran poses no threat to anybody, that its entire program is entirely peaceful and it has no military component, that there is no evidence indicating it wants a military component,” he said, adding that Tehran has not pursued any objectives that need to be banned regionally and globally.

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