World View: Jubilation in Tehran over Iran's Nuclear Deal

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Jubilation in Tehran over Iran’s nuclear deal
• Pakistan’s Imran Khan blockades supplies to Nato in Afghanistan

Jubilation in Tehran over Iran’s nuclear deal

Jubilant Iranians holding posters of president Hassan Rouhani welcome the return of victorious negotiator Javad Zarif in Tehran on Sunday (AP)

Iranians cheered foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on his returnto Tehran, after successfully negotiating the nuclear deal in Geneva.He was praised as an “ambassador of peace”, and chants rang out, “Noto war, sanctions, surrender and insult.”

In particular, they were jubilant that Zarif was able to gloat that hewon the concession that Iran can continue enriching nuclear material,and will continue. Zarif directly contradicted the claim by U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry after the deal had been signed that Iranhad no right to enrich, but Zarif gloated, “Enrichment wasrecognized.” Defeating the West on enrichment was a key point ofpride for the Iranians, resulting in the jubilation.

This was only a six-month deal, to buy time before reaching a finaldeal. According to the U.N. resolutions on the subject, Iran muststop enriching. It remains to be seen which side will back down onthe issue of enriching. CS Monitor and Time

Pakistan’s Imran Khan blockades supplies to Nato in Afghanistan

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former cricket superstar turned anti-Americanpolitician, has called on his supporters in his PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) political party to blockade transit routes usedby trucks to carry Nato supplies from the port at Karachi throughPakistan to Afghanistan. Khan called for the blockade after aNovember 21 American drone strike killed two senior Haqqani networkleaders, along with three Taliban leaders. (See “22-Nov-13 World View — New American drone strike stirs outrage in Pakistan”)

Khan is threatening to continue the blockade until all American dronestrikes are ended. Khan wants to end Taliban terrorism politically bynegotiating with the terrorists, a concept that can be accuratelydefined as a fantasy. According to Khan:

“Pakistan cannot take this any longer. It has paid aheavy price for participating in the US war in Afghanistan and I’mafraid the time has come to change strategy. And the strategy ispolitical settlement. But there won’t be a political settlement aslong as there are drone attacks.”

Khan’s power base is the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering onPakistan’s tribal area which, in turn, borders on Afghanistan. Khanis setting national policy from a provincial level, and he’s notreceiving support from Pakistan’s president Nawaz Sharif, or thenational government. So it’s not expected that the blockade will lastso long that it will harm the Nato forces, especially since theyexpected the blockade and are prepared for it. Daily Times (Pakistan) and Channel News Asia (Singapore)

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