And never did I deviate from my marching orders. – Günter Grass
Among all those who have commented on Günter Grass’s recent propaganda “poem” against Israel, some have criticized that not enough attention has been paid to his proposal of disarming the Jewish State. Their judgment appears now to have been slightly premature. After the anti-Semitic tirade of the former Waffen-SS member was immediately lauded by a representative of the Iranian regime, the Israeli intelligence news site DEBKAfile reported that “Iran’s ‘new initiatives’ place Israel at [the] center of nuclear talks” and that, among other things, in the upcoming ‘nuclear talks’ in Istanbul,
[…] Iran will reject demands to shut down the underground enrichment plant at Fordow, near Qom, but agree to signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s Additional Protocol – which would permit IAEA inspectors to make spot checks at all suspect nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow – with one proviso: The six powers must also require Israel to sign the NPT plus the Additional Protocol. If Israel doesn’t sign both parts of this treaty, neither will Iran endorse the AP.
Its representatives will be briefed to turn aside every demand the world powers make of Tehran by twisting it around and pointing it at Israel’s alleged nuclear program. They will argue that they are acting to promote President Barack Obama’s avowed vision of a nuclear-free Middle East. By using this stratagem, the Iranians expect to come away from the negotiating table sitting pretty, having extracted international permission both for enriching as much high-grade uranium as they want and for keeping the Fordow facility in full operation.