Apparently President Obama and his team can't even do appeasement right.
The Iranian negotiators abruptly pulled out of the P5+1 talks and left for Teheran after the U.S. Treasury Department, on direct orders from the White House, announced new sanctions on a dozen companies and individuals for evading US sanctions.
“America’s move is against the spirit of the Geneva deal,” Iranian chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi told the Iranian government FARS news agency.“We are evaluating the situation and will make the appropriate response.”
That's actually a little humorous since the Iranians made it plain that our President and John Kerry were lying when they announced the Geneva deal 3 weeks ago because there is no deal at this time, merely a proposal. And the clock has not even started ticking yet on the six-month suspension of Iran's nuclear program our president and Secretary Kerry were talking about...not that the Iranians agree that they promised to freeze anything, according to them. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration admits Iran still received $20 billion in sanctions relief just for sitting at the table and giving up nothing.
The new sanctions were the White House's bright idea of a compromise. Congress was ready to pass resolutions and legislation calling for stricter sanctions in the event Iran didn't comply with the agreement (again, a little ludicrous since at present there isn't any agreement) but the White House went into action to quash them, even to the extent of forcing Democrat House Whip Steny Hoyer to withdraw support for his own resolution.
Iran had been quite clear that increased sanctions were a red line and that they would quit negotiations. And why not? They already have their money, and the sanctions regime that took two years to put into place is gone forever.So, instead of playing this silly gambit out, the Obama Administration decided to look like tough guys or something, and put out it's own sanctions, thus giving the Iranians an excuse to bolt and stall some more, or perhaps even hold up th ewest for more concessions as an excuse for coming back to the table.
You really can't make this stuff up. This president and his team aren't amateurs. They haven't reached that level yet.
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