The Jerusalem Post reports that Congress is gearing up to move ahead with new sanctions on Iran in the event that the Iranians do not offer a serious response to the Obama administration’s diplomatic overtures. And the Iranians have not offered a serious response to the Obama administration’s outreach, offering instead an absurd program for talks on full of lefty talking points about environmental issues but nothing about the country’s nuclear program. The Obama administration has accepted this Iranian offer. As one Hill staffer put it to me in an email today, “The Iranians just spit into the face of the international community, and the Obama administration’s response is to try to persuade us that it’s raining.” As the JPost makes clear, the Obama administration is going to have a hard time selling this kind of engagement on the Hill. The paper quotes Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee: “I said that I did not intend to immediately move it through the legislative process. I wanted – and still want – to give the administration’s efforts to engage Iran every possible chance to succeed, within a reasonable time frame.” And then an unnamed Senate aide:
Obama has caved in to North Korean demands for bilateral talks and got absolutely nothing in return. Obama has given up U.S. missile defense sites in Eastern Europe and gotten less than nothing in return from Russia — this week the Russians balked at imposing new sanctions on Iran, the oft-promised quid for the administration’s “reset” in U.S.-Russia relations. And that’s just in the last week. Given Obama’s early record of appeasing America’s enemies and antagonizing America’s allies — either deliberately or through sheer incompetence — it’s hard to imagine that Obama doesn’t, on Iran’s behalf, plead with members of Congress from both parties for more time…even when it’s become perfectly obvious that the Iranians are simply stalling and have no intention of seriously engaging on the nuclear question. Let’s hope that Democrats in Congress like Lieberman and Berman are serious about holding this administration’s feet to the fire because it’s fast becoming clear that the administration is not at all serious about holding the Iranian’s to account for their ruthless suppression of any and all domestic dissent, their brazen disregard for the international non-proliferation regime, or their continued support for insurgent groups waging war on U.S. troops. Update: It’s worth noting this very tough statement from Berman on Thursday:
