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Angry White House and G.O.P. Senators Clash Over Letter to Iran

WASHINGTON — The fractious debate over a possible nuclear deal with Iran escalated on Monday as 47 Republican senators warned Iran against making an agreement with President Obama and the White House accused them of undercutting foreign policy. In an exceedingly rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, the Republicans sent an open letter addressed to “leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” declaring that any agreement could be reversed by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.” The letter appeared aimed at unraveling an agreement even as negotiators grow close to reaching it. Mr. Obama, working with leaders of five other world powers, argues that the emerging agreement would be the best way to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, while critics from both parties contend that it would be a dangerous charade that would still leave Iran with the opportunity to eventually build weapons […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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GOP Senators Thrust Themselves Into Iran Talks

ENLARGE Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, poses for photographers with Senate leaders, including Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), to his right, last week when he spoke to a joint session of Congress. Photo: Getty Images A classic quandary facing any Congress is deciding just how deeply to get involved in the making of foreign policy. It’s an area where the president usually is given wide berth, and lawmakers traditionally are wary of getting too invested on the front end of tough international decisions, because that means they own the messy consequences of a bad decision on the back end. Yet at the moment, the Republicans running Congress are planting their flag firmly on the side of demanding not just a say in, but a right to veto, any coming nuclear deal with Iran. This raises a basic question: Could Congress blow up international negotiations led by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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GOP Senators Warn Iran’s Leaders on Nuclear Deal

ENLARGE Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was among 47 Republicans who signed an open letter to Iran about nuclear talks with the Obama administration. Photo: Associated Press WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Monday sharply criticized an open letter by 47 Senate Republicans warning Iran’s leaders that any agreement between the White House and Tehran on nuclear weapons could be quickly nullified or changed once Mr. Obama leaves office. The lawmakers were effectively aligning themselves with Iranian hardliners who oppose an international nuclear deal, Mr. Obama said. The letter, which was signed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and a number of top committee chairmen, came as a major new complication in a debate over international nuclear talks that face a March 31 deadline. Senators said that, unless approved by Congress, any agreement between world powers and Iran would be seen by GOP lawmakers as an executive agreement between […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Republicans warn Iran nuclear deal with Obama may not last

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. senators warned Iran’s leaders on Monday that any nuclear deal with President Barack Obama could last only as long as he remains in office, an unusual partisan intervention in foreign policy that could undermine delicate international talks with Tehran. The open letter was signed by 47 senators, all but seven of the Republicans in the Senate, and none of Obama’s fellow Democrats, who called it a "stunt." Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif dismissed it as a "propaganda ploy" from pressure groups he called afraid of diplomatic agreement. In the letter, the senators said Congress plays a role in ratifying international agreements. Noting Obama will leave office in January 2017, they said any deal not approved by Congress would be merely "an executive agreement" that could be revoked by Congress. The White House said the letter was a partisan effort to undermine Obama’s foreign policy […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil could lead to the downfall of ISIS

BLASTED: An aerial photograph showing what United States military officials describe as a Command and Control Facility in the town of Tikrit, Iraq, after air strikes appears in this recent undated military handout photograph. As the empire continues to collapse, imperialism and the blatant lies (that come with it) will no longer matter. The PTB will plow forward steamrolling anything in the unrelenting ways of “progress”. We all know what the perpetual war in the middle east is about. Most mindlessly go about filling the car and shopping, whispering to themselves, “We see it, we know it, we just are not allowed to say it”, for fear of losing the false sense of security that the deception of empire instill, through delusion of comfort and “security”. “Oh holy crude” sung to the tune of “Oh Canada.” Elijah and the Widow would be proud ( The Peak of The Oil […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libyan general sworn as top commander as his planes hit Tripoli airport

Warplanes from Libya’s internationally recognized government attacked the last functioning airport in Tripoli, the capital controlled by a rival administration, on Monday, officials said. Extending a series of tit-for-tat strikes, the attack coincided with the swearing-in of Khalifa Haftar, one of the most divisive figures in post-revolutionary Libya, as army commander for the recognized government. Rival governments and parliaments are battling for control of the large North African country and its oil resources four years after rebels ousted veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi. The recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and the elected parliament have been confined to a rump state in the east since an armed faction seized Tripoli in the west over the summer, reinstating the previous assembly and setting up a rival administration. "Warplanes conducted airstrikes this morning on Mitiga airport but there was no damage," airport spokesman Abdulsalam Buamoud said. "Flights were suspended for only an hour … […]

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BP Announces Offshore Gas Discovery in Egypt

LONDON–BP PLC said Monday it has made a significant gas discovery offshore Egypt days after announcing plans to help invest around $12 billion to develop gas and condensate from its West Nile Delta project in the country. The discovery and investment in Egypt’s energy sector is welcome news for the country, which is facing its worst energy crisis in decades amid rising demand and falling gas production. BP said Monday its Atoll-1 deepwater exploration well in the East Nile Delta had hit 50 meters of gas-bearing rock, the company’s second major discovery in the area since 2013 and a promising sign for the potential commercial development of the concession. The company estimates that the potential volume of gas in the area could exceed 5 trillion cubic feet. The discovery follows BP’s decision last week to go ahead with development of the West Nile Delta project, in which it holds […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Four Filipinos nabbed from Libyan oil field

The government in Manila announced the repatriation of more than six dozen nationals from Libya one day before Islamic State abduction of four Filipinos. Photo courtesy of Filipino Foreign Ministry Seven foreign workers were abducted and 11 guards were killed when militants raided the Ghani oil field in Libya. Fighters loyal to the group calling itself the Islamic State took credit for the Friday attack, the latest to stifle oil operations in Libya. The Filipino government confirmed four of its nationals were among those seized, the Libya Herald reported Saturday. The confirmation came after the Filipino Foreign Ministry said 77 of its citizens were repatriated March 5 after they crossed the border into Tunisia. "The Department of Foreign Affairs estimates that there remain approximately 4,000 Filipinos in Libya despite the call by the Philippine government for their mandatory evacuation as a result of the deteriorating security situation in that […]

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Libya to export over 2 million barrels of oil from east this week

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Libya is set to export more than two million barrels of crude oil this week from two ports in the east where output has topped 245,000 barrels per day, oil officials said on Monday. Rising exports from the ports of Hariga and Zueitina offer some hope for the OPEC member state’s oil sector, which has been battered by Islamist militant attacks and fighting between rival factions. Output from four fields including Sarir, the country’s largest, has reached 243,000 to 245,000 bpd, said Omran al-Zwai, spokesman for state firm Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) which dominates production in eastern Libya. AGOCO restarted output at the Sarir and Messla oilfields after a pipeline blast cut off supplies to Hariga last month. The two fields pump around 180,000 bpd, while AGOCO also runs the Hamada and Nafoura fields. A fifth field, Bayda, has been closed to an outage, […]

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Sasol Cuts 1,500 Jobs as Oil Price Slumps

ENLARGE South African petrochemicals company Sasol Ltd. has cut 1,500 jobs and said more will go, the latest layoffs in a global oil sector contending with the commodity’s price rout. Head count at the company will be “dramatically down” by June, with Sasol pressing ahead with steep cuts in capital spending and a reduction in its annual dividend, Chief Executive David Constable said. But Mr. Constable said the scale of the industry’s cutbacks are such that they might catapult oil prices higher again in 2017 after their roughly 50% slide since last summer. “The capital projects that we’re cutting back on—that the majors are cutting back on—these projects take years and years to start back up. You don’t flip the switch,” he said in an interview. “That’s what could give you a high-side well above 100 [dollars a barrel],” he said. Sasol itself has “put on the shelf…until further […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple