The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday, Jan. 16, confirmed that Iran was in full compliance with the P5+1 agreements, and, as the result, key sanctions are being lifted by the UN, the European Union, and the United States. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Vienna for the formal announcement, along with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini.  Hours before the formal announcement, the U.S. and Iran reached a prisoner swap agreement, under which five Americans held in prison in Iran were released in exchange for five Iranians imprisoned in America.

To meet the criteria for full compliance, Iran delivered 98 percent of its stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia, removed the core from the Arak heavy water reactor, and dismantled 2/3 of the centrifuges at its enrichment facilities.

At a White House press conference on Sunday morning, President Obama also announced that the U.S. and Iran had reached an agreement resolving a legal dispute pending since 1981, over frozen Iranian assets.  President Obama claimed that the settlement saves the United States billions of dollars in interest payments and continuing legal costs.  In his 15-minute nationwide TV address, President Obama did acknowledge the pivotal role played by Secretary of State Kerry in negotiating the P5+1 deal and the prisoner exchange.

The initial lifting of sanctions against Iran comes less than a month before crucial national elections in Iran for the Majlis (national parliament) and the Consultative Assembly, the body that chooses the successor to Supreme Leader Khamenei.  Both President Rouhani and former President Rafsanjani are seeking seats on the Consultative Assembly.

The British Empire’s economic system is more than dead, and the only thing worth discussing is canceling it all, eliminating it totally, and creating new options, Lyndon LaRouche stated today.

There is no point in trying to quantify the corpse, or the amounts of speculative paper that are already going up in smoke. You cannot measure it, because it is already more than dead. Nobody knows—except that the collapse is on, that it is proceeding at an accelerating rate, and that there is no solution within the system. When you are on the verge of societal chaos and disintegration, the only thing worth considering are not the stupid, cheating, lying comments and actions coming from bankers and the Obama administration; all you need to know, LaRouche noted, is that you really don’t want to marry a corpse!

The trans-Atlantic system, is endlessly, hopelessly bankrupt, and the whole shebang simply has to be canceled immediately. The only question is, when will it be buried, and a new system created, just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt did? We have to create sane options, by eliminating everything that Wall Street represents. There is no assurance of any true value in their entire system, so why try to measure it? We simply have to cancel it, and come back with a re-statement of a new system, as FDR did.

Our enemy, to be kept clearly in our sights, is the genocidal British Empire, which is guilty, among other crimes, of placing their tool Barack Obama in the Presidency of the United States. As LaRouche stated in discussions with associates yesterday:

“There’s one issue: the British Empire, period. That’s the only subject. What do we do about the British Empire?” Everything else is just talk and distraction, LaRouche said. The British Empire dominates the planet, including Wall Street, and including the fascist Green policy, which has now been taken up and promoted by Pope Francis. “What’s the Green policy? It is entirely the British System. It is nothing but the British System. So don’t go looking for explanations, per se. You have to sink the British Empire!”

As LaRouche stated in a discussion with associates today: