We like your contributions, BU. Please make it a little easier on us by classifying your submission properly| Here's how I do it: o P.1 War on Terror is for kinetic action, explosions, murder and kidnapping, and arrests and convictions. o P. 2 WoT Background is for army maneuvers short of kinetics, politics, statistics and background about P.1 activities, trials, and release of prisoners, unless kinetic action is involved. o If it's an op-ed or from most blogs, it's P.4 Opinion -- if you want it in P.1 or P.2 news, go to the original news report the blogger was discussing, then add perspective via in-lines. o If Communists, Russia, China, or North Korea are involved, it's P.3 Non-WoT, unless connected to Iran, Syria, or other WoT actors doing WoT things, eg. Russia supporting Assad or NorK selling Iran nuclear device technology. |
However, it has emerged that the U.S. began secret negotiations even earlier, in 2011, during the presidency of the extremist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Moreover, during that time, not only had the Western countries not lost interest in maintaining the sanctions, but they had intensified them significantly after the beginning of the secret negotiations -- both in March 2012, when sanctioned Iranian banks were disconnected from the SWIFT system, and in July 2012, when the European sanctions on Iranian oil sales were imposed.
Furthermore, according to recent reports in Western media from Western sources, the Obama administration had, since President Obama took office in 2008, constantly and consistently pushed for negotiations with Iran. President Obama's messages in this regard to Iran's leadership on various levels -- letters, public speeches, and so on -- began as early as 2009; details of these media reports and of Obama's messages will be published in a separate MEMRI report.
Additionally, it is evident from statements by top Iranian officials that the secret contacts initiated by the Obama administration with Iran did indeed begin in 2011, during the extremist Ahmadinejad's presidency -- before harsh sanctions were imposed.
This paper will present the Iranian narrative, as related by senior Iranian regime officials, about the beginning of the secret contacts between the U.S. and Iran that ultimately led to the announcement of the JCPOA in July 2015: