By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 24 -- After the Iran deal was announced in Geneva, the US insisted that it had not recognized any right to the enrichment of uranium.
But while John Kerry spoke, Iranian foreign minister Zarif said Iran would continue to enrich and any claim to the contrary was "ballyhoo" -- notably, an Irish word.
Later on a White House background call, two self-described senior administration official emphasized how little had been given to Iran: $6 to $7 billion, versus much large harms still caused. On petrochemicals, John Kerry refers to $1 million, while one of the two senior administration officials said $1 billion. But who's counting?
ABC television not even cutting to Geneva but staying on college football's Baylor - Oklahoma State game, tweeted by Inner City Press, was picked up by AP in Geneva. Do Americans care so much about how much harm Obama continues to impose on Iran? We'll see.
Text journalists were excluded, even from major corporate media, an arbitrary Banning that the Free UN Coalition for Access protests.
Iran's Press TV was all over it, broadcasting live well before others jumped in. After Ashton's statement, French foreign minister, who as Inner City Press reported previously blew up the talks (amid France's pitch of military wares to Saudi Arabia) spoke briefly with French media, with former UN Deputy Permanent Representative Martin Briens behind him.
A White House background press call that was to start at 10:30 pm was superseded by Obama going live. He went only six minutes and took no questions, throwing things back to Foreign Minister Zarif in Geneva. There, Margaret Warner of PBS told him that the White House summary of the deal didn't mention enrichment of uranium.
Zarif smiled and said, We only require respect for that right. And still the White House "background" call hadn't started. But already the push back began, including in Congress. And if they could override a veto and impose new sanctions? Watch this site.
Footnote: in the run up there was waste and falsehood, such as a Reuters scribe who has spied for the UN (click here for documents on that) getting "funky" with selfie photos of chicken dinners. To this has the MSM descended. Watch this site.
Watch this site.