President Obama is playing footsie with Iran’s new president, and Hassan Rouhani is, at least tonally, returning the good will.
As Rouhani arrives in New York for the UN General Assembly this week and asks the United States to pretty please ease up on economic sanctions, Obama must stand firm: Sanctions will stay in full force or ratchet up — and the threat of potential military action will loom — until Tehran’s nuclear program is absolutely and verifiably dismantled.
No softening. No conditionals. No wiggle room. And minimal time for throat-clearing talks that will only give the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the rogue regime’s true behind-the-scenes power, critical time to stall while the centrifuges spin.
Such a productive and principled stand is made far more difficult by Obama’s tentative approach to the Syrian chemical-weapons program. He said “or else,” then approached the brink of a limited punitive attack, only to ask Congress for permission, then strike a shaky disarmament deal proposed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
It was an unhelpful, potentially dangerous signal to the world, and especially to Syria’s patron Iran: The American President kind of, sort of means what he says.
Rouhani, who came into office in early August, casts himself as a moderate who wants to thaw what have become icy relations with the United States.
Soon after Rouhani’s victory, Obama sent him a letter reportedly indicating willingness to pursue diplomacy — and potentially to lift sanctions after Iran makes demonstrable, unambiguous progress toward ending its nuclear program. Rouhani responded with cordial words of his own.
Likely reason one: economic sanctions have caused widespread pain in Iran, fueling spiraling unemployment and inflation.
Likely reason two: For the leader of a country under the world’s klieg lights, and perhaps in its crosshairs, it always pays to posture as a voice of reason. At the very least, it stalls a reckoning.
Thus came Rouhani’s Op-Ed in Thursday’s Washington Post.
“I’m committed to fulfilling my promises to my people, including my pledge to engage in constructive interaction with the world,” he said.
No mention of Iran’s support of Bashar Assad in Syria. Or its sponsorship of Hezbollah and Hamas. Or its virulent hatred of Israel.
“To us, mastering the atomic fuel cycle and generating nuclear power is as much about diversifying our energy resources as it is about who Iranians are as a nation, our demand for dignity and respect and our consequent place in the world,” he said.
No mention of his nation’s repeated refusal to comply with United Nations mandates and allow complete inspection of its nuclear program, which certainly includes a push to obtain nuclear weapons.
The Iranians ramped up production of highly enriched uranium at a range of facilities until a U.S.-developed computer virus disabled those centrifuges.
They kept one enrichment facility, hidden beneath the mountains near the city of Qom, secret — until it was exposed by Western intelligence.
Time and again, they have pledged a sincere interest in productive talks — only to delay, distract and obfuscate when the time came to deliver concrete progress toward dismantling their program.
“There is no need to be fooled by the words,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “The test is not in what Rouhani says, but in the deeds of the Iranian regime, which continues to advance its nuclear program with vigor.”
A timely, urgent warning. Proceed with extreme caution.
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