by Stephen Lendman

VUndersecretary of State for Political Affairs/chief US Iranian nuclear talks negotiator Wendy Sherman said she's leaving State shortly after the June 30 deadline for an agreement.

"It's been two long years," she explained. John Kerry commented saying "Wendy has been an absolutely critical member of my team, most notably in her work spearing the nuclear negotiations with Iran, but on every important issue that has crossed my desk."

Obama said he "long counted on Wendy's…intellect, toughness and persistence which have made her one of the most effective diplomats of her generation."

She's No. 3 at State, close to Hillary Clinton, and may have in mind a top position in her administration if she's elected president next year.

Sherman admitted US opposition to normalizing relations with Iran - saying efforts to do it will take years to play out.

In October 2013 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she demonized Iran saying "(w)e know that deception is part of (its) DNA."

It wasn't the first time she made racist statements about the Islamic Republic. Besides saying "sanctions we have in place should not disappear anytime soon, unless all of our concerns are addressed by the Iranians."

The whole world knows Iran's nuclear program is peaceful with no military component. Annual US intelligence assessments and Mossad say so.

If Sherman or another US official accused Israel, America's NATO partners, or Middle East Arab allies of deception, they'd be summarily banished from government service and denied lucrative private sector employment.

Vilifying independent governments irresponsibly is longstanding US policy.

Iran complies fully with Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) provisions.

Sherman lied claiming its Article IV doesn't let Tehran pursue development of fuel-cycle capabilities, including uranium enrichment, under international safeguards.

Article IV states:

"(N)othing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination."

Iran has as much right as other NPT signatories. BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as well as 120 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) members affirm Iran's right to pursue safeguarded enrichment.

America, Britain, France and Israel alone object. The Jewish state is a longstanding nuclear outlaw.

Sherman lied further claiming "(i)t has always been the US position that Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty does not speak about the right of enrichment at all (and) doesn't speak to enrichment, period."

False! Earlier US policy affirmed the right to peaceful nuclear development. Doing so included indigenous development of safeguarded fuel-cycle capabilities.

In 1968, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency head, William Foster, told Senate Foreign Relations Committee members:

"Neither uranium enrichment nor the stockpiling of fissionable material in connection with a peaceful program would violate Article II so long as these activities were safeguarded under Article III."

Article II commits non-nuclear weapons states not to pursue their development. Article III requires they accept safeguards on their nuclear activities.

Throughout her time as chief nuclear negotiator, Sherman maintained longstanding US distrust and hostility toward Iran.

Despite its major concessions after many months of talks, it's unclear if a final deal is possible.

Iran insists on ending all illegal sanctions as fundamental for reaching agreement - on the day it's implemented. It calls it the "principle of simultaneity."

Washington insists on gradual lifting able to drag things out indefinitely without providing Iran the relief it deserves.

Talks continue in Geneva. On May 30, John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will again meet for further discussions.

Whether a final deal can be reached remains to be seen. Of greatest concern is whether Washington would honor one.

It's history of agreement violations is notorious. Given 36 years of hostility and extreme anti-Iranian Israeli pressure (including from its Lobby), it hard imagining a new dawn in bilateral US/Tehran relations.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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