‘This is the new America. We had better get used to it,’
says TV commentator after president leaves door open to Iran’s sanctions demand,
defends Putin’s missile sale
Israeli analysts expressed shock and amazement
Friday night at US President Barack Obama’s stated openness to Iran’s
demand for the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions, and his defense of
Russia’s agreement to supply a sophisticated air defense system to Iran.
There was no immediate official Israeli response to the
president’s comments, which were made after the start of Shabbat in Israel,
when politicians generally do not work.
“Jaws dropped” around the studio, said the Channel 10 News diplomatic
commentator Ben Caspit, as news broke of Obama’s declared empathy for Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s decision to supply Tehran with the S-300 missile
defense system.
“Obama is something else,” Caspit added. “He’s decided to
take America out of the wars…”
The station’s news anchor, Alon Ben David, chipped in,
“He’s amazed that the Russians honored an agreement with him [for this long]?
That’s what is astonishing.”
Responded Caspit, “This is the new America. We had better
get used to it.”
Channel 10 also quoted unnamed senior Israeli diplomatic
officials saying the prospect of Israel derailing the deal taking shape in
US-led talks with Iran on its nuclear program was now zero. “The Iran issue is
finished,” the officials were quoted saying.
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| President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, April 17, 2015. (photo credit: AP Photo/J. David Ake) |
Obama noted that Putin had previously suspended the sale
“at our request. I am frankly surprised that it held this long, given that they
were not prohibited by sanctions from selling these defensive weapons.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has furiously
protested the planned supply of the advanced systems, and phoned Putin this
week to try to persuade him to reconsider, but was rebuffed. Israel fears the
S-300s would complicate any military intervention as a last resort to thwart
Iran’s nuclear drive. It also fears Iran could supply the missile defense
systems to Syria or Hezbollah, diluting Israel’s air supremacy over Syria and
Lebanon.
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| A Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system on display at an undisclosed location in Russia (photo credit: AP) |
Obama on Friday also left open the door to “creative
negotiations” in response to Iran’s demand that punishing sanctions be
immediately lifted as part of a nuclear deal, even though the US has said the
framework agreement reached in Lausanne earlier this month calls for the
penalties to be removed over time.
Asked whether he would definitively rule out lifting
sanctions at once as part of a final deal aimed at keeping Iran from developing
a nuclear weapon, Obama said he didn’t want to get ahead of negotiators in how
to work through the potential sticking point. He said his main concern is
making sure that if Iran violates an agreement, sanctions can quickly be
reinstated — the so-called “snap back” provision.
“How sanctions are lessened, how we snap back sanctions if
there’s a violation, there are a lot of different mechanisms and ways to do
that,” Obama said. He said part of the job for Secretary of State John Kerry
and the representatives of five other nations working to reach a final deal
with Iran by June 30 “is to sometimes find formulas that get to our main
concerns while allowing the other side to make a presentation to their body
politic that is more acceptable.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President
Hassan Rouhani insisted last week that they would not sign a deal unless all
sanctions are lifted right after an agreement is signed. Obama initially
portrayed their comments as a reflection of internal political pressure, while
pointing out that the framework agreement provides for sanctions to be
phased out only once international monitors verify that Tehran is abiding by
the limitations.
***
This is completely insane. Obama’s foreign
policy has run amok. Congress should impeach President Obama on Iran now!
The time for half measures is over. The Congressional oversight bill on Iran deal that the US Senate
Foreign Relations Committee passed the other day and which will be passed by the
Senate is too little too late. Obama’s foreign
policy has become a clear and present to the US and the rest the world and
should be stopped by Congress by impeaching the President.
Enabling
Iran's Nuclear Program while Vowing to Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear
Weapons
ARTICLE IV
FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE
