No surprise here. Zarif is close to John Kerry and others among the political establishment that showered billions upon the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Council on Foreign Relations would sooner host Javad Zarif than it would, say, Donald Trump or Mike Pompeo.
“U.S. Think Tank Under Fire for Hosting Top Iranian Official,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, September 15, 2020:
A U.S. think tank is under fire from the Trump administration and its allies in Congress for hosting Iran’s chief propagandist in an upcoming event that legal experts say runs afoul of American sanctions laws.
The Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan U.S. think tank that employs numerous former government officials, is scheduled to host next Tuesday Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, the regime’s top spokesman and architect of the landmark nuclear accord, for a virtual conversation on the Zoom meeting platform. The event comes just days after Iran tortured and executed popular Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari over his participation in a peaceful protest. The execution sparked outrage across the globe and is casting a shadow over the CFR event.
Trump administration and congressional officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about the upcoming event expressed outrage that CFR would host Zarif after his government executed Afkari, who has since become a poster boy for Iran’s human-rights abuses.
The event also runs afoul of U.S. sanctions laws, according to a legal group. Under strict interpretations of the current law, Americans are prohibited from providing any services, including technology services like those used to host the event, to sanctioned individuals such as Zarif. The event could serve as a test for the Treasury Department as it determines how the law should be enforced. While Americans are permitted to meet with sanctioned individuals under the auspices of the United Nations in New York City, meetings of this nature remain in a legal gray area.
“Considering the Iranian regime’s brutal execution of Navid Afkari on Saturday, no country or organization should be giving Foreign Minister Zarif a platform to spread his propaganda,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told the Free Beacon. “Zarif and his government should only be met with isolation and censure for their barbarity.”
If current law is enforced by the Treasury Department, both CFR and Zoom would be exposing themselves to sanctions violations….
gravenimage says
Council on Foreign Relations set to host Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign minister
……………
Fraternizing with America’s enemies.
Emilie Green says
“The main purpose of the Council on Foreign Relations is promoting the disarmament of U.S. sovereignty and national independence and submergence into an all powerful, one world government.”
~ Rear Admiral Chester Ward
Rear Admiral US Navy (retired), CFR member for 16 years, Judge Advocate General of the Navy 1956-60
“[the CFR has as a goal] submergence of U.S. sovereignty and national independence into an all-powerful one-world government.… this lust to surrender the sovereignty and independence of the United States is pervasive throughout most of the membership.… In the entire CFR lexicon, there is no term of revulsion carrying a meaning so deep as ‘America First’”
Admiral Chester Ward, Kissinger on the Couch, pp. 144-150 (1975)
The CFR was incorporated in NY in 1921 by the then big money men (e.g., Waburg, House, Rockfellers, et alia). It was the elites’ response to the 1919 Senate rejection of the Treaty of Versailles and the US’s entry into the League of Nations through which the US would be manipulated into ceding its sovereignty which is the end goal. The elites gave a sigh and said, “Okay, we’ll have another one.” And they did, elevating a penniless, WWI veteran sustaining himself by selling paintings of Vienna street scenes, into a rampaging monster who achieved their ends. The US entered the UN in 1945.
James Lincoln says
The current law should be fully enforced by the Treasury Department.
This Zoom meeting should not happen – at all.
KS says
Enough with the western hypocrisy here , millions of people live under the horror that’s called sharia law in the middle east yet no body is condemning the blatant human rights abuses by the so called American allies (Saudi Arabia, all Arabic gulf countries & the rest of the middle east) yet we see no one talking about frredom for people there only poor Hong Kong people who have at least 10000000000000 times more freedom than all middle easterners combined yet we don’t see #free middle east , we don’t see sanctions for governments for decapitating some one for insulting Islam or flogging or endless prison times or torture like it’s been done in Saydi Arabia
Long story short most of the middle east is a copy paste of Iran at least they’re not lying about it like the rest of sharia law promoters
OLD GUY says
Well said, one has to wonder where are all the women rights and black lives matter voices when it comes to the Middle East where human rights abuse is terrible.