By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 24 -- Hours after the Iran deal was announced in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry still told CBS that though Iran's Foreign Minister Zarif "said that they have a right to enrich," that is "not accurate."Transcript here.
Earlier in the night, or morning, Zarif had said Iran would continue to enrich and any claim to the contrary was "ballyhoo" -- notably, an Irish word.
Now, the "Joint Plan of Action" as uploaded by Iran's FARS says "Iran announces that it will not enrich uranium" over a certain percentage "for the duration of the 6 months."
It also provides in a footnote that "Consistent with its plans, Iran's centrifuge production during the 6 months will be dedicated to replace damaged machines."
On a thrice-delayed White House background call, two self-described senior administration official emphasized how little had been given to Iran: $6 to $7 billion, versus much larger harms still caused.
On those harms, American Enterprise Institute analyst Danielle Pletka on Sunday told the press that Tehran has merely been prioritizing helping Syria's Assad over buying food and medicine -- this, just after mentioning letter of credit problems (beyond the "de-SWIFT-ing" of Iran banks.)
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.
Shortly after the deal was announced, AP as well as AI Monitor came out with stories about William Burns long behind the scenes work on the deal. Some questioned the timing. Other asked, having "flooded the zone" in Geneva only to tweet photos of chicken dinners, where is Reuters on this story?
Do Americans care so much about the value of harm which 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A White House background press call that was to start at 10:30 pm was superseded by Obama going live.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.