Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and John Kerry both hate America.
The Boston Globe reported on Friday that former Secretary of State John Kerry has been secretly working with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif to save the Iran nuclear deal, which the Trump administration has strongly criticized and might renegotiate or cancel within the next two weeks.
The Boston Globe describes Kerry’s activities as “shadow diplomacy” and an “aggressive yet stealthy” effort to save “one of his most significant accomplishments”:
John Kerry’s bid to save one of his most significant accomplishments as secretary of state took him to New York on a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, where, more than a year after he left office, he engaged in some unusual shadow diplomacy with a top-ranking Iranian official.
He sat down at the United Nations with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to discuss ways of preserving the pact limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It was the second time in about two months that the two had met to strategize over salvaging a deal they spent years negotiating during the Obama administration, according to a person briefed on the meetings.
With the Iran deal facing its gravest threat since it was signed in 2015, Kerry has been on an aggressive yet stealthy mission to preserve it, using his deep lists of contacts gleaned during his time as the top US diplomat to try to apply pressure on the Trump administration from the outside. President Trump, who has consistently criticized the pact and campaigned in 2016 on scuttling it, faces a May 12 deadline to decide whether to continue abiding by its terms.
Kerry also met last month with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and he’s been on the phone with top European Union official Federica Mogherini, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal the private meetings. Kerry has also met with French President Emmanuel Macron in both Paris and New York, conversing over the details of sanctions and regional nuclear threats in both French and English.
Boston Globe Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Matt Viser sought to capture how both sides of the partisan divide are responding to the news of Kerry’s “unusual” activities:
As John Kerry seeks to save the Iran deal, supporters see unflagging energy even amid potential failure. Critics may see something else: a former officeholder working with foreign officials to potentially undermine policy aims of a current administration.
As Seth Mandel of the New York Post pointed out, the “supporters” half of Viser’s formulation is a matter of partisan opinion, while the “critics” half is a literal description of what Kerry is actually doing. One suspects mainstream media coverage of, say, Condoleeza Rice jetting around Europe to secretly undermine Barack Obama’s foreign policy in 2010 would not have praised her “unflagging energy.” The Obama administration veterans and sympathizers quoted in the Boston Globe piece sound an awful lot like people either ignoring the results of a presidential election or seeking to nullify it.
There is also the question of whether Kerry’s activities violate the Logan Act, that highly controversial and almost completely ignored piece of 18th-century regulation that expressly forbids private citizens from undermining U.S. foreign policy. The relevant U.S. Code reads as follows:
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
The Logan Act is something of a joke among legal scholars and political analysts, who often call for it to be repealed as obsolete rubbish because no one has ever been convicted under it… but it recently was employed as the pretext for action against President Trump’s first National Security Adviser, Gen. Mike Flynn.
Flynn was not actually charged under the Logan Act, but he pled guilty to making false statements during an investigation based upon it, as CNN explained in December 2017:
In court filings, Michael Flynn acknowledged he lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about calls with foreign officials, including the Russian ambassador, to try to influence the outcome of a UN resolution in December 2016 while a member of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team.
Michael Zeldin, a former prosecutor who was a special assistant to Mueller in the Justice Department, said the outreach to foreign governments by Trump’s team at the time the Obama administration was in dispute with Israel over the vote is “facially” a violation of the Logan Act.
Flynn’s contact with the Russian ambassador “seems to violate what the Logan Act intended to prevent,” Zeldin said. He added that even though the Logan Act hasn’t been used successfully “it doesn’t mean that Mueller wouldn’t consider using it to pressure defendants.”
The New York Times reported in February 2017 that Obama advisers heard about Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and “grew suspicious that perhaps there had been a secret deal between the incoming team and Moscow, which could violate the rarely enforced, two-century-old Logan Act barring private citizens from negotiating with foreign powers in disputes with the United States.”
In December 2017, the NYT ran an op-ed from Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner that took the Logan Act very seriously indeed, and warned the Trump team they should “fear” it:
The statute, which has been on the books since the early days of the republic, reflects an important principle. The president is — as the Supreme Court has said time and again — “the sole organ of the nation in its external relations.” If private citizens could hold themselves out as representatives of the United States and work at cross-purposes with the president’s own diplomatic objectives, the president’s ability to conduct foreign relations would be severely hampered.
Hemel and Posner dismissed the argument that the Logan Act could be ignored because it has never been successfully prosecuted before, arguing that both Flynn and whoever directed his actions — they suggested President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — should be jailed, and even suggested impeachment proceedings for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
“If the phrase ‘high crimes or misdemeanors’ means anything, it includes violation of a serious criminal statute that bars citizens from undermining the foreign policy actions of the sitting president,” they declared.
As Dan McLaughlin points out at National Review at the end of an argument for repealing the Logan Act, Kerry has potentially set himself up for more serious charges under the law than Flynn, who was “apparently acting for a duly-elected incoming presidential administration” when he committed his alleged transgression. Kerry can make no such claim.
Chief political correspondent Byron York makes the same case that investigating Flynn under the Logan Act but giving Kerry a free pass is illogical:
Have often argued that 1799 Logan Act, used as pretext to question Michael Flynn, is dead. So IMHO it’s dead for John Kerry, too. But if you believe Logan Act was used legitimately against Flynn, you’ve got to want a DOJ/FBI Kerry investigation…
York noted in December 2017 that the Logan Act was the reason Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, an Obama administration holdover, decided to interrogate Flynn:
Yates described the events in testimony before a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on May 8, 2017. She told lawmakers that the Logan Act was the first concern she mentioned to McGahn.
“The first thing we did was to explain to Mr. McGahn that the underlying conduct that Gen. Flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself,” Yates said. That seems a clear reference to the Logan Act, although no one uttered the words “Logan Act” in the hearing at which Yates testified. “We took him [McGahn] through in a fair amount of detail of the underlying conduct, what Gen. Flynn had done.”
Yates and the aide returned to the White House the next day, Jan. 27, for another talk with McGahn. McGahn asked Yates “about the applicability of certain statutes, certain criminal statutes,” Yates testified. That led Sen. Chris Coons, who had called for an investigation of the Trump team for Logan Act violations months before, to ask Yates what the applicable statutes would be.
“If I identified the statute, then that would be insight into what the conduct was,” Yates answered. “And look, I’m not trying to be hyper-technical here. I’m trying to be really careful that I observe my responsibilities to protect classified information. And so I can’t identify the statute.”
While Yates became reticent in the witness chair, the public nevertheless knows from that “official familiar with her thinking” that Yates believed Flynn might have violated the Logan Act, a suspicion she shared with other Obama administration officials.
The coda to the Mike Flynn Logan Act saga is that a House Intelligence Committee report released on Friday made it clear that the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn “didn’t think he was lying.”
Thank Obama For This Mess and Don’t For Get Nikki Was Excited To Meet Barry.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, noted this week that there is mounting evidence showing that Iran is indeed arming Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen in violation of the U.N. resolution that codifies the nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers into international law.
During a U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Haley identified the evidence as Iranian-manufactured anti-tank guided missiles, a drone known as a kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicle and SHARK-33 explosive boat material.
“All of these weapons, recovered from attacks and planned attacks on a G20 country [Saudi Arabia], were made by Iranian weapons industries tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,” said the U.S. ambassador.
“We have an opportunity to confront the Iranian regime for its actions that are clearly in violation of Security Council resolutions,” she added. “The international community must demonstrate that we are committed to ensuring accountability for the full spectrum of Iran’s malign behavior.”
Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are regional rivals fighting a proxy war in Yemen.
“This is the Secretary-General’s fourth report on the Iranian regime’s lack of full compliance with Resolution 2231,” also said Haley, referring to the U.N. resolution that put the nuclear deal into international law form. “And it is the most damning report yet. This report makes the case that Iran is illegally transferring weapons.”
In its fourth and most recent report on the issue, U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres cautions that Iran may be ignoring the international body’s call to stop developing ballistic missiles, adding that the United Nations is probing the Islamic Republic’s suspected transfer of weapons to Houthis in Yemen.
Jeffrey Feltman, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, highlighted steps the international body can take to pressure Iran into abiding by the nuclear pact, notes CBS News.
“Based on the violations of the Secretary-General’s report, there are a few options that we can use to put pressure on Iran to adjust their behavior: The Security Council could strengthen the provisions of Resolution 2231; We could adopt a new resolution that makes clear that Iran is prohibited from all activities related to ballistic missiles,” proclaimed Feltman.
In October, U.S. President Donald Trump refused to re-certify Iran’s compliance to the controversial nuclear agreement reached by the Islamic Republic and world powers led by the previous U.S. administration in July 2015.
Haley has accused Iran of violating the terms of the agreement, recently revealing what she described as “irrefutable evidence” that the Islamic Republic broke the rules by providing military assistance to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In his most recent report, the U.N. secretary-general “refers to debris from missiles fired by Houthi militants from Yemen into Saudi Arabia in July and November of this year … The inventory at the warehouse in Washington removes any shred of doubt that the missiles are from Iran.”
During a press conference in Washington, DC, last week, Haley presented what she described as recovered pieces of an Iranian-made Houthi missile fired from Yemen into Saudi Arabia in November.
At least since the Houthi takeover of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in late 2014, U.S. and Saudi Arabia officials have asserted that Iran has been arming the Shiite rebels.
In March 2015, the Saudis formed a U.S.-assisted coalition to combat the Houthi threat in neighboring Yemen and restore the internationally-recognized government of Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
The Houthis in Yemen have repeatedly fired missiles allegedly built by Iran across the border into Saudi Arabia.
Houthis have also targeted the U.S. Navy in international waters off the coast of Yemen with missiles that allegedly originated in Iran.
Tehran has long denied the assertions that it is providing military support to the Houthis.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a
new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes, a leading
hardline newspaper reported Sunday in another show of defiance against Western
pressure to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program.
Another newspaper quoted a senior commander of the powerful
Revolutionary Guard force as saying Tehran’s leadership has decided to order
the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic oil route, if the country’s
petroleum exports are blocked. Revolutionary Guard ground forces also staged
war games in eastern Iran in an apparent display of resolve against U.S. forces
just over the border in Afghanistan.
“The supreme authorities … have insisted that if
enemies block the export of our oil, we won’t allow a drop of oil to pass
through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the strategy of the Islamic Republic in
countering such threats,” Revolutionary Guard deputy commander Ali Ashraf
Nouri was quoted as saying by the Khorasan daily.
Iranian politicians have issued similar threats in the past,
but this is the strongest statement yet by a top commander in the security
establishment.
The latest statements are certain to fuel tensions with the
U.S. and its allies, which are trying to turn up pressure on Iran with new
sanctions to punish it over its disputed nuclear program. The West suspects
Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, but Iran denies this.
The United Nations has already sanctioned Iran for refusing
to stop uranium enrichment – which can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile
warhead material. Tehran says its nuclear program is only for energy and
medical research, and refuses to halt uranium enrichment.
Kayhan daily, which is close to Iran’s ruling clerics, said
Tehran has begun injecting uranium gas into sophisticated centrifuges at the
Fordo facility near the holy city of Qom.
“Kayhan received reports yesterday that show Iran has
begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility amid heightened foreign enemy
threats,” the paper said in a front-page report. Kayhan’s manager is a
representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the
final word on all important matters of state.
Iran’s nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, said late Saturday
that his country will “soon” begin enrichment at Fordo. It was
impossible to immediately reconcile the two reports.
Iran has a major uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in
central Iran, where nearly 8,000 centrifuges are operating. Tehran began
enrichment at Natanz in April 2006.
The Fordo centrifuges, however, are reportedly more
efficient. And the site better shielded from aerial attack.
Nouri said Iran’s leadership has made a strategic decision
to close the Strait of Hormuz, should the country’s exports be blocked.
One-sixth of the world’s oil flows to market through the Strait of Hormuz, at
the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
President Barack Obama approved new sanctions against Iran a
week ago, targeting the central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad.
The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months,
worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy
is already struggling. But the new sanctions nevertheless prompted a series of
threats from Iranian officials about closing the Strait of Hormuz.
The newspaper paraphrased Nouri as saying that a 10-day
naval war game which ended Tuesday was preparation for such a closure. The
Guard, which is Iran’s most powerful military force and which has its own naval
arm, has planned more sea maneuvers for February.
“The exalted leader (Khamenei) determined a new
strategy for the armed forces, by which any threat from enemies will be
responded to with threats,” Nouri said.
The U.S. and Israel have said that all options remain open,
including military action, should Iran continue with its enrichment program.
Tehran says it needs the program to produce fuel for future
nuclear reactors and medical radioisotopes needed for cancer patients.
The country has been enriching uranium to less than 5
percent for years, but it began to further enrich part of its uranium stockpile
to nearly 20 percent as of February 2010, saying it needs the higher grade
material to produce fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes medical radioisotopes
needed for cancer patients. Weapons-grade uranium is usually about 90 percent
enriched.
Iran says the higher enrichment activities – to nearly 20
percent – will be carried out at Fordo. These operations are of particular
concern to the West because uranium at 20 percent enrichment can be converted
into fissile material for a nuclear warhead much more quickly than that at 3.5
percent.
Built next to a military complex, Fordo was long kept secret
and was only acknowledged by Iran after it was identified by Western
intelligence agencies in September 2009.
Buried under 300 feet (90 meters) of rock, the facility is a
hardened tunnel and is protected by air defense missile batteries and the
Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s most powerful military force. The site is located
about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Qom, the religious nerve center of
Iran’s ruling system.
“The Fordo facility, like Natanz, has been designed and
built underground. The enemy doesn’t have the ability to damage it,” the
semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted nuclear chief Abbasi as saying Sunday.
