Who is Biden’s unblinking chief negotiator on Russia & Ukraine?

19/01/2022

This is a very interesting article by Russia Today on Wendy Sherman the chief US negotiator with Russians. The article is right in pointing out that the two main agreements she has negotiated with North Korea and Iran have ultimately failed. Only ultimately of course, because for some time they have stopped the course to war against Korea and against Iran. They have failed because there are two parties in the US, the far Right Party, semi-fascist Party of War (now represented by Trump, Netanyahu, Pompeo, Bolton etc.) and the Party which wants some kind of peace, without of course resigning from fundamental capitalist – imperialist interests (a division which has been permanent during the last century). The later party did oppose wars in Korea and Iran and to do it it used Wendy Sherman. As far as we don’t have some kind of Socialism in the US, the alternative to this (very unsatisfying of course) “Peace Party” is a Nuclear World War and the end of humanity.
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos

Who is Biden’s unblinking chief negotiator on Russia & Ukraine?

Wendy Sherman has helped Democratic presidents negotiate now-failed deals with North Korea and Iran

Jan 17, 2021

Veteran US diplomat Wendy Sherman is the woman conveying Washington’s messages about NATO expansion in Europe to Moscow – but the ‘hard-nosed’ negotiator was previously involved in sealing security deals with Pyongyang and Tehran.

Neither the Clinton-era Framework Agreement with North Korea nor the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) acted as the enduring restraints on nuclear proliferation that they were meant to be.

Sherman and IranIn the Obama administration, Sherman was appointed an under secretary by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and led the US delegation negotiating a nuclear agreement with Tehran. The multilateral deal known under the abbreviation JCPOA offered Iran a relief of international economic sanctions and business rapprochement with the West in exchange for accepting restrictions on its nuclear industry. Touted as the best and most realistic way to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, the deal was considered by many as the crowning achievement of Obama’s foreign policy.

However, the deal was denounced by Israel and many Republicans, with President Donald Trump later branding it the “worst deal ever made” before ultimately pulling Washington out of the agreement abruptly in 2018.
A year later, Tehran began gradually stepping back from its own commitments from the deal, branding the US as untrustworthy. The Biden administration has stated its intention to salvage the agreement, but after months of negotiations and now with a more hardline government in power in Tehran, it is unclear whether this can be achieved.

‘Doesn’t show weakness’According to sources friendly to Sherman, she has been masterfully commanding the attention of the Russian delegation during this month’s talks on NATO expansion. Evelyn Farkas, who worked alongside her in various capacities, described her to The Hill as “tough,” “hard-nosed” and somebody who “won’t let the Russians get away with any baloney.”
“Certainly, the Russians, the North Koreans and the Iranians wouldn’t expect this from a woman, but she can go head-to-head with them and doesn’t show weakness and doesn’t show fear and doesn’t try to mollify her negotiating counterpart,” she said.

Who is Biden’s unblinking chief negotiator on Russia & Ukraine?

Who is Biden’s unblinking chief negotiator on Russia & Ukraine?

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