Lift Iran Sanctions Or All Bets Are Off - Ex US Sen Cand

Lift Iran sanctions in timely fashion or all bets are off: ex-US Senate candidate

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Fri Apr 10, 2015 6:37PM

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) leaves before European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini (C) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif make statements after Iran nuclear talks finished on April 2, 2015 in Lausanne, Switzerland. (AFP photo)

A former US Senate candidate says if a final nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group does not guarantee a complete lifting of sanctions in a timely fashion, then all bets are off.
On Thursday, the United States said Iran sanctions would be lifted in “a phased manner” as part of a final nuclear accord between Tehran and the P5+1.

"Sanctions will be suspended in a phased manner upon verification that Iran has met specific commitments under a finalized joint comprehensive plan of action," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said.

Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas, told Press TV on Friday that “the deck is stacked against Iran” in “these Israel-driven negotiations.”
Last week, the P5+1 group – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – reached an outline of a potentially historic agreement with Iran over Tehran’s civilian nuclear work that would lift all international sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic in exchange for certain steps Tehran will take with regard to its nuclear program.
The pace at which the illegal sanctions imposed on Iran will be removed is one of the outstanding issues that still have to be worked out in the final agreement.
Iran insists all sanctions should be removed once the framework understanding reached in Switzerland is finalized.
Dankof said that “wherever we turn in this agreement between Iran on the one hand and the P5+1 on the other [we see] that Iran has made all the concessions. It is very, very clear.”
He said that the United States does not want to remove sanctions promptly. “The process that the P5+1 envisions is where these sanctions are involved will result in only a very gradual lifting of the sanctions, the process of lifting them could take many, many years.”  

“I believe the case here is that the deck is stacked, but the deck is stacked against Iran in terms of all the concessions it has already made. The deck is stacked against Iran in terms of the fact these sanctions will never be lifted in a prompt and in a legitimate fashion,” Dankof said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that Tehran would not sign any final nuclear accord unless "all economic sanctions are totally lifted" on the first day of the implementation of the deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

“The president of Iran has correctly indicated that those sanctions must be lifted and lifted immediately for Iran to go through with this agreement. I think he should stick to that position,” Dankof said.
“If Iran is not granted a complete lifting of those sanctions in a timely fashion, then I think all bets are off,” he added.
“I think this is the only decision that the Iranians can take in this matter, because it is very clear that a majority in the United States’ Congress controlled by the Israel lobby -- both in the House and in the Senate -- was to torpedo this agreement even though Iran has made the draconian concessions in it, because the bottom line is that the government of the United States driven by Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel itself want a war with Iran,” he noted.

“And they will be satisfied with nothing less than a war with Iran, and a war with Iran that is directed at a ‘regime change’ in terms of the government of that country. That’s a bottom line here,” Dankof said.

“I think this entire agreement is going to fall through. I think this is going to have very tragic consequences,” he stated.
“And I believe all of the consequences of what’s going to happen lay at the doorsteps of these American neoconservatives -- and the American government -- who are basically financed and controlled by Israel, and the Israeli government [sic] itself,” he concluded.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/04/10/405649/Lift-Iran-sanctions-or-all-bets-off