Via Bloomberg Business:
President Barack Obama is coming under pressure from his own party to advance new penalties to punish Iran for its recent ballistic missile tests even as a landmark nuclear deal, which would loosen international sanctions, is on the verge of being implemented.
Several Democratic senators who supported the deal say they’re worried that the Obama administration’s delay in issuing new sanctions may undermine the U.S.’s ability to enforce the agreement.
Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who’s a member of the Senate Foreign Relations panel, said Monday they want the administration to move forward with additional sanctions after the missile tests that Iran conducted late last year. Both senators supported the July agreement that would ease economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on the country’s nuclear program.
Even the most ardent opponents of this “deal” probably didn’t think Democrats would sour on it this quickly. The more rational among us were skeptical all along that this thing wasn’t properly incentivized to make one of the more evil regimes in the world decide to suddenly play nice.
It would appear that we were right:
“I am concerned that as implementation of the JCPOA moves forward, the administration has not taken steps to hold Iran accountable for its actions and to demonstrate that there will be swift consequences for violations of the JCPOA,” Casey said, referring to the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that was reached by six world powers and Iran. “Chinese and Russian obstructionism is blocking UN Security Council action, so I urge the administration to sanction the individuals or entities responsible for this violation.”
What would have been nice is a mechanism in the “deal” that automatically triggered sanctions for the violation. Obama more than likely took everything the Iranians said at face value, assumed they’d behave well, and certainly didn’t expect them to almost immediately thumb their noses at him.
The safety of the world is in the hands of a naive cult leader, his blind followers, and the UN Security Council.
It’s a clown car heading for a cliff.
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