Article:
https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/09/23/middleeast/zarif-us-talks-intl/index.html
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I'm not trying to make a negotiation more difficult, nor have I ceased to think of myself as being a foreign policy amateur.
I'm asking about human rights in Iran because I don't know what mechanism an agreement that promises the permanent lifting of sanctions would leave in place to address the issue of human rights.
To be honest, I'm not sure why human rights are such a problem in the Middle East. What are the leaders afraid of? A population that is free is also more productive, as the United States proved by abolishing slavery.
Women are very productive in the United States. Black people and other minorities are very productive in the United States. We could all be more productive if we had equal rights in every respect in addition to having them legally.
It's when people are oppressed and disenfranchised that they have a collective impetus to be disruptive or a burden. I think that every country that has ever been pushed around by the United States and/or by Europe can understand that. I don't absolve history.
I also am disgusted by the willingness of ostensible democracies to let people who had faith in them and who rebelled against dictators be tortured, defeated and uprooted by the millions just because those dictators aren't quite stupid enough to attack those ostensible democracies. Yet.
