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In this mailing:
* Khaled Abu Toameh: Why a Nuclear Agreement With Iran Is Not Enough
* Lawrence A. Franklin: Syria's Christians Have No Future There


** Why a Nuclear Agreement With Iran Is Not Enough ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • June 2, 2025 at 5:00 am
* As talks between Washington and Tehran are underway to reach an agreement on Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, even if a deal is reached, unless it features "anywhere, anytime" inspections, to which Iran has never agreed, Iran will secretly continue to develop nuclear weapons and cheat, cheat, cheat.
* If such a deal is reached, Iran also is not going to stop its financial and military support for its terror proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen. Iran, in short, is not going to abandon its declared goal of obliterating the "Zionist entity" ("the Little Satan") or the United States ("the Great Satan").
* If Trump is serious about preventing war and bloodshed in the Middle East, he must insist that any agreement with Iran's mullahs include no centrifuges or uranium enrichment of any kind, and no support for Tehran's terror proxies.
* If something could possibly go wrong, unfortunately it will -- leaving Trump with the legacy of delivering yet another laughably fake peace deal and of his presidency being that of another failed Barack Obama.
* Trump must also demand that Iran's leaders stop calling for the annihilation of Israel.
* The same is true for the leaders of Qatar, as well Qatar's personal insults against Trump himself.
* The Iranian regime is determined to continue supporting [terrorist leaders] to help them achieve their goal of murdering Jews and eliminating Israel.
* "Iran's openly stated goal is to destroy Israel, but the broader game is its perception of the United States as the 'Great Satan.' Iran's strategy involves orchestrating various terrorist groups in the Middle East, with multifaceted objectives. Firstly, it seeks to dominate the Islamic world in the region, asserting its influence over other nations. Simultaneously, it aims to strike at the credibility of the United States, a long-standing adversary in Iranian foreign policy." — Shishir Gupta, executive editor, Hindustan Times, April 27, 2023.
* The Trump administration would do well to take these issues into consideration before signing any agreement with Iran. Such an agreement, if reached, unfortunately will not mean that the Iranian regime has become America's friend. As long as the mullahs continue to wish for the destruction of Israel and America, and to back Islamist terror groups, they should be treated as dangerous enemies of both Israel and the US.

It is wrong and unrealistic to assume that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his regime, if and when they sign a nuclear agreement with the Trump administration, would abandon their dream of destroying Israel and America. Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on as a 'Qasem Soleimani' missile is displayed during a military parade in Tehran, on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

As talks between Washington and Tehran are underway to reach an agreement on Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, even if a deal is reached, unless it features "anywhere, anytime" inspections, to which Iran has never agreed, Iran will secretly continue to develop nuclear weapons and cheat, cheat, cheat.

If such a deal is reached, Iran also is not going to stop its financial and military support for its terror proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen. Iran, in short, is not going to abandon its declared goal of obliterating the "Zionist entity" ("the Little Satan") or the United States ("the Great Satan").

US President Donald J. Trump said on May 28 that he believes his administration is "very close to a solution" with Iran on a nuclear agreement. "Right now, I think they want to make a deal," Trump said. "And if we can make a deal, I'd save a lot of lives."

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** Syria's Christians Have No Future There ([link removed])
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by Lawrence A. Franklin • June 2, 2025 at 4:00 am
* Syria's Christians, most of whom are either Catholic or Greek Orthodox, are viewed by Muslims as infidels and therefore resented by the Syria's Sunni majority.
* Syria's new constitution, published on March 14, stipulates that Islamic jurisprudence is the sole source of judicial decision-making. The constitution also asserts that Syria's president must be a Muslim and that the executive branch has virtually dictatorial powers. The constitution also includes no provision for protecting ethnic and religious minorities, which include Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze.
* Syria's Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X, citing the destruction of a church in Antioch, Syria, has challenged the benign view of the new Islamist regime.
* Israel, which has already attacked government targets in Syria to protect the Druze minority, may, as usual, turn out to provide the greatest protection for threatened minorities – as it has for, for instance, for Baha'is, Sudanese, Ethiopians and Kurds -- for which, of course, it receives no credit at all.

Syria's Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X, citing the destruction of a church in Antioch, Syria, has challenged the benign view of the new Islamist regime. He claims that Islamists killed many innocent Christians in recent fighting. Pictured: Jihadist gunmen deploy outside the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St George in Latakia on December 25, 2024. (Photo by Aaref Watad/AFP via Getty Images)

Sunni Islamist terrorist gangs are still slaughtering minority Alawites in coastal Syrian towns. Thes atrocities began on March 8, allegedly in response to attacks on government troops by remnant forces of the deposed Alawite Assad regime. Some Syrian Christians were also slain, but allegedly were not specifically targeted by Ahmed al-Sharaa's new government of Hayat al-Tahrir (HTS).

During the Assad years, like the Alawites, Christians, were for the most part a tolerated minority. Syria's Christians, most of whom are either Catholic or Greek Orthodox, are viewed by Muslims as infidels and therefore resented by the Syria's Sunni majority. During the country's 14-year civil war, several churches were sacked and burned by jihadist enemies of the Assad dynasty. Some of these anti-Christian atrocities were also committed by foreign jihadists who hailed from Chechnya and Uzbekistan.

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