The Obama administration announced Tuesday a deal with other powers, including Russia and China, to impose a fourth set of sanctions on Iran in as many years, touching off a contest with Tehran to win support in the United Nations Security Council.First, the new sanctions - if they are passed - will accomplish nothing in Iran. All they do is assuage some parts of public opinion is some parts of the so-called "international community".
The announcement came just a day after Iranian leaders announced a tentative deal with Turkey and Brazil to turn over, for a year, about half of Iran’s stockpile of nuclear fuel, part of an effort to undermine the sanctions resolutions. But even if the new sanctions pass the Security Council it is unclear whether its provisions — including a mandate to inspect Iranian ships suspected of entering foreign ports with nuclear-related technology or weapons — will cause enough pain to force the country to halt uranium enrichment and cooperate with international inspectors.
... The agreement was reached by the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council — plus Germany. Russia and China have been the most resistant to the American-led efforts to impose new sanctions on Iran, and blocked any sanctions that would stop the flow of oil out of Iranian ports, or gasoline into the country.
But the countries did agree on sanctions aimed at Iranian financial institutions, including those that support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. ... The newest element of the sanctions would require countries to inspect ships or aircraft headed into or out of Iran if there are suspicions that banned materials are aboard. But as in the case of North Korea, there is no authorization to board those ships forcibly at sea, a step officials from many countries warned could start a firefight, and perhaps touch off a larger confrontation.
If the council adopts the resolution, it would represent the fourth round of sanctions against Iran. The previous three have failed at their main objective: to force Iran to cease enriching uranium and comply with all demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect suspect locations, turn over documents related to suspected weapons research and allow interviews of Iranian scientists.
... In recent weeks, administration officials have been playing down expectations. Mrs. Clinton no longer refers to “crippling” sanctions, the word she used in the summer of 2009. Earlier this year she referred to “biting” sanctions, and President Obama, in an interview in April, declined to characterize how the sanctions would effect Iran.
Other officials say they do not expect these sanctions, even if they pass as now written, to dramatically change Iran’s behavior.
... Iran has been working mightily to ward off new sanctions, sending its foreign minister to the capitals of countries sitting on the Security Council to make the case that the sanctions amount to an American conspiracy to deprive Iran of its right to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Iran’s agreement to ship some of its uranium stockpile to Turkey was widely seen by those who take a harder line on Iran as an attempt to undercut the momentum toward sanctions.
... Mrs. Clinton noted that the new offer would still leave Iran “in clear violation of its international obligations” because it “is continually amassing newly enriched uranium.”
... The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had been at the signing of the agreement in Tehran on Monday, rejected the skepticism about the Iranian offer to ship out uranium and pointedly criticized the continued moves toward sanctions by the United States.
“This is the time to discuss whether we believe in the supremacy of law or the law of the supremes and superiors,” he told a news briefing in Madrid. “While they still have nuclear weapons, where do they get the credibility to ask other countries not to have them?”
It's appeasement PR. KEY EXCERPTS REPEATED:
But even if the new sanctions pass the Security Council it is unclear whether its provisions — including a mandate to inspect Iranian ships suspected of entering foreign ports with nuclear-related technology or weapons — will cause enough pain to force the country to halt uranium enrichment and cooperate with international inspectors.SO WHAT'S THE POINT, REALLY?
... even if they pass as now written, to dramatically change Iran’s behavior.
- DOES THIS EFFORT MAKE US MORE SAFE?
- OR DOES IT MAKE US LESS SAFE?
- IT MAKES US LESS SAFE BECAUSE IT GIVES IRAN MORE TIME.
- OBAMA AND CLINTON AND GATES ARE MAKING US LESS SAFE.
Our nukes protected Turkey for the entire Cold War. That's where OUR freeeeekin' credibility comes from, you ungrateful islamist cretin!
I REPEAT WHAT I HAVE POSTED FOR MORE THAN A YEAR: Turkey under the islamist Erdogan and his AKP, has NO PLACE WITHIN NATO. None. They should be thrown out of NATO on their muslim asses. AT ONCE.
Their efforts on behalf of Iran in this matter only reinforce my view that Turkey is no longer part of the West.
Turkey no longer sees itself as part of the West; Turkey no longer acts as part pf the West; we should no longer treat them as if they are part of the West.
BOTTOM-LINE:
OBAMA HAS MADE US LESS SAFE THAN WE WERE TWO YEARS AGO, AND IT WILL HAVE REPERCUSSIONS.
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