Middle East - Iran’s Supreme Leader Needs Obama’s Deal - by Djavad Khadem

Ali Khamenei needs a nuclear deal with the U.S. to preserve the power of the Supreme Leader after he passes. 

As U.S. and Iranian representatives fiercely negotiate a grand nuclear deal, I am reminded of Churchill's famous saying: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else.”

Secretary of State John Kerry talks about leaving the negotiation table if Iran does not accept the 5+1 while Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, says through various mouthpieces that it is America that needs these talks. Kerry wants a sequential deal, first political then technical, but Khamenei asks for a simultaneous one.

While Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, walk the walk in Geneva, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani talks the talk, applauding progresses made abroad along with yet to be verified domestic economic achievements.  It is déjà vu as he attempts to cool down mounting popular frustrations at home.

Israelis and Saudis can tear themselves apart reminding their American ally of the long-term threats to stability should the Shia revolutionary regime obtain U.S. and international recognition for its nuclear threshold capabilities. The world can speculate on the next move to be made on the Iranian exchequer.

The House of Khamenei, that focal point of real power in Iran known to all Iranians as The Beyt, can push its pawns ever farther into every single conflict in the region. America seems to be ready to make yet another wrong decision before she eventually decides on the right one.

Read more: Iran’s Supreme Leader Needs Obama’s Deal - The Daily Beast

EU ready to enforce travel bans on Iran officials among rumors from Iran that Ahmadinejad is on the way out

EU-Digest

EU ready to enforce travel bans on Iran officials among rumors from Iran that Ahmadinejad is on the way out

The Financial Times Deutschland reported today that the European Union is considering banning some Iranian officials from traveling to Europe in response to the recent political unrest in Iran following the rigged election. The Swedish EU presidency which has just taken over from the Czech Republic has warned that the EU is ready to take serious action if Iran does not free British embassy staff still detained in Tehran. Another plan being circulated around the 27 member EU is to recall ambassadors for a few days as a sign of protest.

Out of Iran come persistent rumors that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is discussing the possibility within the Iran leadership to declare the election null and void and agree to new elections supervised by some international body like the UN. It is said that he understands the cards are presently stacked against Iran, if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains in power, and that distancing himself from Ahmadinejad would reestablish him as a a credible political broker.

LATimes/EU-Digest: Iran-Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ready to dump Ahmadinejad facing diplomatic isolation- by Jeffrey Fleishman and Borzou Daragahi

For the complete report from the Los Angeles Times click on this link

Iran-Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ready to dump Ahmadinejad who is facing diplomatic isolation- by Jeffrey Fleishman and Borzou Daragahi

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can in one instant appear the diplomatic equivalent of damaged goods and in the next a confident leader whose bellicose speeches leave the West wondering how to deal with him and his perplexing nation now that he's won a much-disputed reelection. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko, but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament.A similar pattern has emerged in the Middle East, where Arab regimes have long been wary of Iran's ambitions. Authorities in Jordan withdrew licenses for two Iranian news organizations this week and the sultan of Oman reportedly canceled a trip to Tehran following the unrest after Iran's June 12 election.

Note EU-Digest:Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could, if he wanted to, change the perception of the Iran leadership immediately, and even qualify himself as an honest broker, by declaring the election null and void and agreeing to new elections supervised by some international body like the UN. It would certainly take the pressure off him. Will he do so? Nobody really knows, but he certainly is clever enough to see how the cards are stacked against Iran if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains in power, and this charade continues.