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Diplomacy with US is waste of time: American analyst

Stephen Lendman, an author and political commentator in Chicago

The conclusion of agreements with the US administrations, particularly with the Donald Trump administration, has invariably been of no avail since any sort of diplomacy with Washington is a “waste of time,” says an American analyst. 

Stephen Lendman, an author and political commentator in Chicago, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday, while commenting on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s statement that there are no talks underway between Tehran and Washington since the United States has proven to be an untrustworthy negotiation partner.

“The Americans proved that one cannot rely on the results of talks with them,” Zarif told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s news agency, IRIB News, adding that, “Almost the entire world has come to this conclusion that if it should seek any negotiation with the US, Washington could ignore the [ensuing] agreement any time.”

The US has turned its back on several international agreements under its current administration that is helmed by President Donald Trump. The forsaken deals include a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers.

Washington quit the historic deal in May 2018 and began reinforcing the sanctions that it had lifted. Both of the moves defied a UN Security Council resolution that had endorsed the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Washington has refused to relieve the bans despite international calls for the easing of the restrictions as the entire world is busy battling a new coronavirus pandemic.

Following is the full text of Lendman’s interview with Press TV website:

I certainly agree with Foreign Minister Zarif that the US is an untrustworthy negotiating partner. In a word, the US does not negotiate, it demands. When it agrees to something with another country well maybe it will stick to the agreement or maybe it will not, more often it’s the latter, not the former.

Long ago, to some extent, the US at times, stuck to things that it agreed to but throughout the entire history of the US most often, it's made deals, and then breach them. Going back to deals made numerous deals made with Native Americans back from the beginning of the republic in the 18th century, before the 18th century, it was one treaty after another, agreed to between US ruling authorities and Native Americans and all of them - no exceptions - all of them were breached. And what was the result? Over centuries, 95, 96, maybe 98 percent of Native Americans were eliminated — the world's greatest genocide.

It gets no play at all in the US, nobody is taught this in school at the highest levels. I have two degrees. In history courses that I took, none of this was ever explained to me. I had to learn on my own. And there's plenty of evidence about it. Anybody can find it if they look for it. The most recent egregious examples of the US reneging on deals -  obviously, the Trump's pull out of the JCPOA, his pull out of the INF Treaty with Russia, and his refusal to renegotiate the START treaty, it is up for renewal early next year. It was agreed to about 10 years ago, 10-year treaty up for renewal.

He pretty much said, or his people like Pompeo, they pretty much said, if they were in office, come next year, January, February, so on, they will not renegotiate this treaty that limits nuclear weapons production and stockpile. For what on earth does anybody need nuclear weapons for? The US doesn't have any enemies. Hasn't had an enemy since World War Two. So what does it need nuclear weapons for? Iran isn't an enemy. It's an invented enemy, not a real one. The same thing is true about Russia, about China, about Syria, about Cuba, about Nicaragua, about Yemen and it goes on and on and on.

The US has no enemies because it wants to keep waging endless wars and spend trillions of dollars in weapons and militarism, and what I call the Pentagon's Empire, or bases around the world. It maybe 150-60 countries. Good lord, this is the US military footprint around the world, of course in parts of the world where it doesn't belong and it's operating illegally.

The US wants to build a stockpile of all kinds of weapons, including banned ones, including nukes. When the US breaches a treaty it agreed to it also breaches the US Constitution. The US Constitution under its supremacy states that any treaty or convention, or international law, to which the US is a signatory if that is breached, the US has breached constitutional law. It has done it many times, of course, Trump has done it a few times. There is no point in negotiating with the US because the US does not negotiate. It demands. It wants things its way. If it doesn't get its way, it uses a hammer. Diplomacy with the US is a waste of time. Foreign Minister Zarif is absolutely right in saying that. Everybody should know that because it is a fact.


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