Greece has agreed to sell the operating rights of over a dozen of its airports to a German company in a bid to qualify for bailout loans. The $1.37 billion concession is one of Greece’s biggest privatization deals since the start of the debt crisis.
The decision will hand over 14 of Greece’s airports to Frankfurt airport operator Fraport AG. Fraport expects to close its agreement with Athens in October. The deal will be in effect for the next 40 years.
Abstract
The Obama Administration is negotiating a bad deal in the Iran nuclear negotiations. It has violated every rule of good negotiating practice, making concession after concession on both major and minor issues. With each abandoned red line—whether enrichment, ballistic missiles, verification, or sanctions relief—the Administration has resorted to twisted logic and intellectually disingenuous explanations to justify its concessions. A good deal would deny Iran a nuclear weapons capability, prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon in a short amount of time, extend the breakout time, be verifiable, include phased relief of sanctions and guaranteed snap-back provisions. The Administration’s proposed deal fails on all counts.
Delivered July 7, 2015
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Since the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) was announced in November 2013, the outcome was clear: Iran would be recognized and accepted as a nuclear weapons threshold state. Of course, Iran’s ballistic missile force—the largest in the region—would not be limited in any way. These were explicit concessions acknowledged by the White House, but explained away in the most convoluted fashion.
No longer would Iran be compelled to abandon its enrichment program. It would only be constrained so as to extend the breakout time for the mullahs to build the bomb that they could then deliver by ballistic missile. And even these constraints would be removed after the agreement expires.
First it was delay after delay and one stall tactic after the next in Iran’s favor. Now the Obama administration will likely give Iran exactly what it wanted. The world is going to be a very dangerous place.
Don’t expect any change whatsoever from Republicans in congress or the Senate. They have either been bought out or blackmailed and threatened. They all claimed there would be something done in 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006… ad infinitum. In the end, Democrat or Republican, they all work on the same team. You get to go out and vote for politicians every two years thinking you’ll actually change people who don’t listen to you. That’s what you’re allowed.
Along with a nuclear Iran expect one or a combination of the following:
Say hello to the King of the South (See also HERE).
Limited options for Congress as Obama seeks to bypass lawmakers
LAUSSANE, Switzerland—The Obama administration is giving in to Iranian demands about the scope of its nuclear program as negotiators work to finalize a framework agreement in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the administration’s position in the negotiations.
U.S. negotiators are said to have given up ground on demands that Iran be forced to disclose the full range of its nuclear activities at the outset of a nuclear deal, a concession experts say would gut the verification the Obama administration has vowed would stand as the crux of a deal with Iran. Continue reading
Global Geopolitics 