by Stephen Lendman

Continuing P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran don't suggest Washington wants normalized relations after 36 years of hostility.

The State Department's just released 2014 Country Reports on Terrorism offers more proof. It excludes the world's two most egregious state sponsors of terrorism above all others - America and Israel.

Instead, it absurdly calls the Jewish state "a committed counterterrorism partner" and lists nonexistent threats to its security - including from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon's Hezbollah. It features Cuba (no longer wrongfully designated since May 29, 2015), North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Iran. It blames Syria's Bashar al-Assad for defending his nation against US-imported Islamic State and other takfiri terrorist groups.

It unjustly accuses him of their mass murder, chemical weapons attacks and other atrocities. It ignores Washington's longstanding regime change plans - ongoing belligerently since Obama launched proxy war in March 2011, naked aggression against an independent country threatening no one.

It outrageously accused Iran of continuing "terrorist-related activity" without offering any proof whatever- just meaningless generalizations signifying nothing, part of Washington's longstanding Iran bashing.

Tehran "support(s) Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, Lebanese Hizballah, and various groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East," the report said.

Hamas is Palestine's democratically elected government - not the phony Israeli-installed Abbas regime. It's no terrorist group. Nor is Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other popular resistance groups opposing Israeli occupation ruthlessness.

Iran is helping battle Islamic State terrorists in Iraq, yet is blamed for supporting an unnamed Shia militia falsely designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Any group opposing US imperialism and Israeli persecution of Palestinians is automatically designated an FTO. Regional despots in lockstep with Washington's agenda are considered valued allies - no matter how ruthless their regimes, like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

The State Department unjustly accused Iran of "smuggl(ing) weapons to Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza…continued subtle efforts at growing (its) influence" regionally and elsewhere, and "creat(ing instability in the Middle East."

Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Oods Force (IRGC-QF) "is the regime's primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad," the State Department claimed.

Fact: No evidence whatever suggests Iran supports terrorism or terrorist-related activities anywhere.

Fact: Iran threatens no other nation - not now or earlier.

Fact: Iran hasn't attacked another nation in centuries. It's able to vigorously defend itself if necessary.

Tehran "provide(s) arms, financing, training, and the facilitation of primarily Iraqi Shia and Afghan fighters to support the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown that has resulted in the deaths of at least 191,000 people in Syria, according to August UN estimates."

Fact: Iran justifiably supports its Syrian ally against US proxy aggression - using takfiri terrorists to do its dirty work.

Fact: Obama bears full responsibility for systematically raping the Syrian Arab Republic - committing one of history's great crimes in the process.

The State Department irresponsibly bashed Iran for aiding its Hezbollah ally - a legitimate part of the Lebanese government, not an FTO as falsely designated nor a threat to Israel as wrongfully stated.

"Iran remains a state of proliferation concern. Despite multiple UNSCRs requiring Iran to suspend its sensitive nuclear proliferation activities, Iran continued to be in noncompliance with its international obligations regarding its nuclear program," the State Department claimed.

False! The whole world knows Iran's nuclear program is peaceful - in full compliance with Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) provisions.

Israel's Mossad and 16 US intelligence agencies admit Iran's program has no military component.

In contrast, Israel is a nuclear outlaw - armed and dangerous, unwilling to sign NPT or have its thermonuclear bomb-making facilities inspected.

Given longstanding US hostility toward Iran, it's hard imagining Washington intends normalizing relations ahead. Heavy pressure from Israel and its US Lobby assure continued Iran bashing - whatever the outcome of P5+1 talks.

Note: The State Department released its report (not coincidentally) 11 days before an agreed on June 30 deadline for a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran.

Perhaps it signals US reneging on Lausanne framework agreement terms - irresponsibly blaming Iran for its own double-dealing.

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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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