US President Barack Obama has done well to call on all parties to calm down and let the negotiations with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme take their course. In an interview with Reuters, he says that wrecking the talks now is foolish because no one knows where they will end up. Obama has frequently insisted that no deal is better than a bad deal, and made it very clear that he thinks that Iran has a high threshold to meet in terms of proof and convincing the world that it is prepared to not pursue a nuclear programme, given its history of engaging in covert programmes, and sponsoring terrorism in the region and around the world.
His remarks were aimed at both his enemies in Congress, who are either die-hard supporters of Israel or partisan Republicans, as well as at visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was invited by the Republican leadership to address Congress in a blatant effort to embarrass Obama. The US president ridiculed Netanyahu’s position ahead of his address, making it clear that the Israeli premier’s position of either doubling sanctions or taking military action against Iran will definitely not succeed and will certainly not stop Tehran from enriching uranium.
Obama aims to both “see exactly what’s going on inside of Iran” and “be able to create what we call a breakout period of at least one year between us seeing them try to get a nuclear weapon and them actually being able to obtain one”, which would allow the US to take military action if Iran ever broke a future deal. In making these comments, Obama is attacking his opponents who want the deal to fail and he is reassuring doubters that the US administration is being tough on Tehran and is insisting on a deal that will halt Iran’s nuclear hopes for at least 10 years.
Obama is also reminding them that if they wreck a deal before it is made, Iran will be allowed to walk away laughing at America’s deliberate destruction of the talks, creating serious doubts about US credibility in the future.
