Commentary — Anyone surprised?
Israel paid GOP senator $1m to sabotage Iran accord: Reports
A Republican lawmaker at the US Senate was bribed one million dollars by Israel to try sabotaging negotiations between Tehran and the world powers, including the United States.
The name of Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) emerged on news outlets on Wednesday after a report revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had bribed the choosy lawmakers of the Republican Party so as to kill the accord.
Cotton received $960,250 from the Emergency Committee for Israel, a right-wing political advocacy organization based in the United States, for his senatorial campaign.
As the negotiations were continuing in March 2015, the freshman senator spearheaded an open letter, signed by 47 Republican lawmakers, to warn Iran that a GOP president would not remain committed to any agreement with Tehran.
“I’m pretty sure Bill Kristol (the owner of the Emergency Committee for Israel) did write this letter,” American geopolitical commentator Dean Henderson told Press TV at the time.
Kristol has been notorious for backing Israel and as a leading proponent of US military intervention in Muslim countries, including the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to further the Zionist interests.
Last July, Cotton likened the nuclear agreement to crucifixion of Jesus Christ and US top negotiator Secretary of State John Kerry to Pontius Pilate who let it happen.
“I will stand with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel and work with my colleagues in Congress to stop this deal,” Cotton said during a visit to Israel later.
Despite such attempts, Iran and the world powers, which also included the UK, Germany, Russia, China, and France, reached a nuclear accord in June 2014, dubbed the Join Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Wiretaps uncovered by the Wall Street Journal recently revealed that the Israeli premier had asked the Republicans what they wanted in exchange for opposition against the JCPOA.
“Stepped-up NSA eavesdropping revealed to the White House how Mr. Netanyahu and his advisers had leaked details of the US-Iran negotiations—learned through Israeli spying operations—to undermine the talks; coordinated talking points with Jewish-American groups against the deal; and asked undecided lawmakers what it would take to win their votes, according to current and former officials familiar with the intercepts,” read a WSJ report.
