US ‘MOVING AWAY’ FROM ISRAEL, WESTERN BANKERS AND ARAB MONARCHIES

US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) speaks with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC. (MINA file photo)

Washington, 1 Safar 1436/24 November 2014 (MINA) – A nuclear agreement between Iran and the West will be a “very positive development” and “indicates a shift in US foreign policy”, an American journalist in Missouri says, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Monday.

The administration of US President Barack Obama is “moving away” from Israel, Western bankers and Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf, said Dean Henderson, an author and columnist at Veterans Today.

“This is just a big moment if we can sign this [nuclear] deal with the Iranians, if we can normalize relations as a next step, get rid of these sanctions, be friends with the Iranians who are the most rational state in this region and move away from these [P]GCC monarchies, move away from the Israelis,” Henderson said on Sunday.

“I think there’s going to be a deal. It’s a very positive development in the Middle East and in the world generally, I think it really does indicate a shift in US foreign policy,” he told Press TV during a phone interview.

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Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany – continued their talks in the Austrian capital Vienna on Saturday to work out a final deal aimed at ending the longstanding nuclear standoff before a November 24 deadline.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held fresh trilateral talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU coordinator Catherine Ashton in Vienna.

Kerry arrived in Vienna on Thursday, and insisted that the talks were focused on a deal before the Nov. 24 deadline.

A group of 43 Republican senators, however, have sent a scathing letter to Obama, expressing “alarm” by the prospect of a nuclear accord with Iran and warning they would take new legislative action to impose further sanctions on Iran if they find the deal unacceptable.

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But Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that an accord would only happen if the other side — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — refrained from making “excessive demands”.

Zarif has said that a nuclear agreement would be possible if the P5+1 group discards it “excessive demands”.

Zarif  added that “If, because of excessive demands by the other side, we fail to get a result, then the world will understand that the Islamic Republic sought a solution, a compromise and a constructive agreement and that it will not renounce its rights and the greatness of the nation.” (T/P3/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

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