John Kerry believes that poverty causes terrorism, and so he probably believes that a strong and prosperous Iran will drop its genocidal hatred of Israel and become a stabilizing force in the Middle East. Or more likely he doesn’t care a fig about Israel, but does think that Iran will become peaceful if it becomes prosperous. Meanwhile, back on the planet Earth, Hossein Salami, deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, recently said: “We have no other enemy in the region except for America.”
“Kerry Tries to Drum Up Some Business in Europe for Iran,” by Felicia Schwartz, Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2016 (thanks to Banafsheh):
LONDON—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that European businesses should not use U.S. sanctions on Iran as an excuse for avoiding business with Tehran.
Mr. Kerry’s comments, just ahead of meetings with European banking leaders here Thursday, were part of the Obama administration’s moves recently to help integrate Iran into the global economic system after decades of punitive sanctions.
Six world powers agreed last year to lift international sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. But since the deal formally took effect in January, Iranian officials have complained that they are not seeing the results of the sanction relief swiftly enough. Although the U.S. played a major role in the nuclear deal, U.S. sanctions related to human rights and terrorism remain in place on broad sectors of Iran’s economy.
Mr. Kerry told reporters traveling with him Tuesday that the U.S. “sometimes gets used as an excuse in this process” by business executives who fear that U.S. would frown on deals with Iran.
“If they don’t see a good business deal, they shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, we can’t do it because of the United States.’ That’s just not fair. That’s not accurate,” Mr. Kerry said….