The White House has stated that they may veto a proposed amendment that would require Pastor Saeed Abedini and three other Americans held captive in Iran be released as part of any Iranian nuclear deal.
“That is simply unbelievable. Refusing to discuss the Americans being held hostage by Iran at the bargaining table and rejecting any congressional attempt to make any deal with Iran contingent on the release of the Americans is unacceptable. It’s quite frankly appalling,” the American Center for Law and Justice wrote in an update on Thursday.”
Naghmeh Abedini, Saeed’s wife, continues to advocate for her husband’s release said,
“Our government must not forget that Saeed is not being held by the reformists with whom they negotiate, but by radical hardliners who oppose what he represents – a Christian convert and a U.S. citizen,” she said. “We cannot leave my husband’s fate in the hands of these radicals. I implore our government to remember the urgency of bringing Saeed home to our family.”
The release was a response to a statement by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
“Our first priority is to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “
“The President would certainly veto any amendment or any bill with an amendment that undermined the unanimous compromise that was reached in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or that interfered with the ongoing negotiations,” Earnest said.
“Certainly a provision, an amendment, that made this nuclear deal contingent on Iran’s release of those three American citizens would fall, I think frankly, into both categories.”
The wife of wrongly imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini says the guards at the prison where he’s being held tell him that unless he renounces Christ, he will never be released.
“Last week had been quite difficult for Saeed. He has been under a lot of pressure and attack from the hardliners. The guards have also been threatening Saeed that he will never go free and additional charges (and years) will be added to his sentence (which they have done to other Christians and fellow inmates),” said the pastor’s wife, Naghmeh Abedini, according to American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
“They continually threaten Saeed that the only key to his freedom is denying Christ and returning to Islam. Saeed refuses to deny Christ and continues to be a light and witness in that dark prison. These threats, coupled with the fact that there have been mass executions during the last week in Rajayee Shahr prison, have really taken their toll on Saeed. He asks for prayer for continued strength,” she said.
Saeed has been imprisoned for more than two and a half years for his Christian faith.
The ACLJ is calling on U.S. officials to raise the situation with Abedini when they return to the negotiating table with Iran on April 21st.
“Our government must do everything in its power to bring pastor Saeed home. It is absolutely critical that the Obama administration and the State Department continue to demand that our innocent citizens — especially pastor Saeed who is suffering only because of his religious beliefs — be returned home,” said the organization. “He suffers from injuries. He is separated from his family. He is persecuted for his faith. He is surrounded by fellow inmates being dragged to the gallows. The thought is unbearable.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told those attending the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony that the world has not learned the lessons of the Holocaust.
Netanyahu used the current situation with Iran and nuclear negotiations as an example of the world not learning lessons regarding appeasement of tyrannical regimes.
“Appeasing tyrannical regimes will only increase their aggression and is an approach that is liable to drag the world into larger wars,” he said. “The bad deal with Iran signals that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned.”
The prime minister continued to say that even if the rest of the world bows down before Iran, Israel will stand alone.
“Even if we are forced to stand alone against Iran we will not fear. In every circumstance we will preserve our right and our ability to defend ourselves,” he added.
Netanyahu said that the world needs to protect the values of freedom and tolerance to ensure that humanity can be free.
A French government fact sheet on the Iranian nuclear deal, not meant for public view but leaked to the Times of Israel, shows that Iran could be able to quickly generate material needed for a nuclear bomb.
The deal allows Iran use of the IR-2 and IR-4 centrifuges, which can rapidly create highly enriched uranium that is needed for nuclear weapons.
In addition, the deal allows Iran to continue their research and development on the IR-4, IR-5, IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges. The IR-8 centrifuge could enrich uranium at 20 times the speed of the current IR-1 centrifuges. The document released by American officials did not specify this fact.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been assailed by American officials after he said the deal was “very bad” for Israel and paves the way for Iran to create a nuclear bomb. The French document appears to back up the claims of Netanyahu that were criticized by American officials.
This is the second time documents have conflicted with the American “fact sheets” on the Iranian deal.
Israeli analysts noticed differences between the American and Iranian fact sheets just days after the announced deal. Ehud Ya’ari of Israel’s Channel 2 News noticed that while the U.S. says restrictions on enrichment last 15 years, Iranians say it’s only 10. The Iranians also said that they can continue R&D on centrifuges, which the French document confirms, and the American documents say is not permitted.
Israeli officials responded to an interview by President Obama claiming he supports Israel by saying his platitudes are irrelevant if Iran gets a nuclear weapon.
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel’s Channel 2 that while President Obama’s claim it would be a “fundamental failure” of his presidency if Israel is weakened is “pleasant-sounding”, “no assistance and no backing will help if Iran acquires nuclear weapons.”
Steinitz, a colleague of Netanyahu, released a government fact sheet outlining 10 differences in the deal between Israel and American views. Among the questions were what would happen to Iran’s stockpiled enriched uranium and why the lifting of sanctions was not connected to changes in Iranian behavior.
The document concludes “the alternative to this framework is a better deal, one that will significantly dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, bring about a cessation of its aggression in the region and terrorist activities around the world, as well as end its efforts to destroy Israel. The framework deal does not block Iran’s path to the bomb. By removing the sanctions and lifting the main restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in about a decade, this framework paves Iran’s path to a bomb. The result will be a dramatic increase in the risks of nuclear proliferation and an increase in the chances of a terrible war.”
U.S. officials dismissed the Israeli fact sheet and statements regarding the deal. Obama advisor Ben Rhodes said the deal “is the best deal that can emerge from these negotiations” and refused to even consider adding the clause the Iran affirms Israel’s right to exist.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told CNN that while he respects the president, the deal is a threat to the Israeli people.
“I trust the president is doing what he thinks is good for the United States. But I think we can have a legitimate difference of opinion on this,” Netanyahu said.
President Obama admitted Tuesday to NPR, without acknowledging Israeli’s claims from the beginning about this fact, that at the end of the deal Iran would have an “almost zero” breakout time to a nuclear bomb.
President Obama surprised supporters of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his faith by issuing a call for his release.
The President sent a recorded address to the Iranian people on the holiday Nowruz. On that holiday, prisoners are traditionally set free or given reduced sentences. The President said in his address that Pastor Abedini should be released along with other Americans who are being held in Iranian prisons.
“Saeed Abedini of Boise, Idaho has spent two and a half years detained in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs,” he said. “He must be returned to his wife and two young children, who needlessly continue to grow up without their father.”
Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh Abedini, has met with leaders of the United Nations to have the U.N. secure her husband’s release. The U.N.’s Human Rights Council is now examining the situation to see how they can help obtain Abedini’s release.
Officials with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) say the U.N. Human Rights Council is taking a hard look at the case of Pastor Saeed Abedini and his wrongful imprisonment in Iran.
“The Human Rights Council Working Group looked at the facts, they looked at the evidence and they came to the independent conclusion, as we have, that his detention is arbitrary, that it is in violation of international law and that he should be freed,” Associate Counsel Matthew Clark said to One News Now.
“So the U.N. is taking steps to put out there exactly what is happening and what action needs to be taken by the Iranian government to free him.”
The move by the U.N. is seen as significant to put pressure on Iran in the wake of Abedini’s home country doing nothing to help obtain his release from an Iran prison.
“It’s been nearly two and a half years now since Jacob’s dad, Saeed Abedini, has been imprisoned in Iran because of his Christian faith,” Jay Sekulow of the ACLJ wrote in an article for Fox News.
“And, on this day, the day Jacob turns 7, his dad is still languishing in prison — separated from his son, his daughter and his wife — still in need of medical care, still facing an uncertain fate.”
Imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini was sent an invitation to the birthday party of his son Jacob next week and responded with a letter saying his “chains are keeping me from you.”
He said that Jacob should invite Jesus into his heart and that He will fulfill all of his son’s needs.
The letter was given to a relative of Abedini who was permitted to visit him last week in his prison.
“I saw your beautiful birthday invitation that you had made me and I know how much you want me to be there on your birthday,” the letter reads. “Daddy loves you so much. I long to be there for your birthday and to make this reunion happen, but my chains are keeping me from you.”
“So happy birthday to my big boy and my hero, Jacob Cyrus Abedini,” he wrote.
President Obama had told Jacob he would get his father home for his birthday but so far nothing has been done by the administration to secure the release of the American pastor imprisoned for his faith.
The wife of imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini says that he’s been shaken by the beating and then executions of six prisoners who have been held with him in Iran.
“Saeed was quite shaken as he had to witness 6 fellow prisoners being beaten and taken to be executed (hanged) that day,” Naghmeh was quoted as saying in a report by American Center for Law and Justice on Saturday.
“It was a hard and dark day having witnessed that and seeing life being taken. The prison visit was also very hard as the families of those who were executed were crying and wailing.”
Naghmeh said that she learned of the situation after his Iranian relatives visited the prison.
Despite a promise from President Obama that he would obtain Saeed’s release by the 7th birthday of Saeed’s son Jacob, nothing has been done by the White House.
“It was also an emotional visitation as it is getting closer to Jacob’s 7th birthday. Last time Saeed saw Jacob he was 4 years old,” she said, urging Christians to continue to pray for her husband “to have the strength to endure in that harsh prison and that Jesus would continue to meet him there and give him hope.”
A man that the U.S. government has designated a terrorist has been found leading Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS.
The man is Major General Qasem Suleimani, the Iranian spymaster and leader of the special operations wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Photographs from the war theater around Tikrit showed Suleimani providing direction to senior Iraqi officials fighting to take the town back from ISIS. Analysis say the discovery shows the growing influence of Iran on the Iraqi government.
“I know we’re keeping our distance physically from them in Baghdad,” Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J said. “Have we ceded most of the governance of Iraq to Iranians?…And will the military operations that are undergoing, which we are watching, divide the country and require us in some ways to spend more of our resources?”
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that he shared the concern of the representatives about who would be influencing the region if the troops drive ISIS out of the major cities in the region.
Intelligence officials say that 2/3 of the Shiite militia fighting ISIS are loyal to Iran.
