Bimbo Diplomacy: Obama Again Makes Nice to Iran

Attempting to justify Obama administration efforts to stymie additional Congressional sanctions against Iran, US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf declared on Monday (see: http://freebeacon.com/state-department-defends-proposed-pause-in-new-iranian-sanctions/):

"Well, I don’t — I don’t know if I’ll say how they should interpret it, but I’ll — let’s just talk a little bit about this. This — we’re only asking for a pause of a short period of time here. And what we want is for our sanctions to be lined up with our negotiating strategy. So we have an obligation right now to test this cautiously encouraging tone that we hear out of the new Iranian government. Our negotiating team believes it’s the best way to take a short pause, to give that diplomacy a chance to play out a little bit because, indeed, it’s all of our, and Congress’s preference that this be resolved diplomatically. There’s numerous statements from members of Congress who have spoken to this issue. So we’ll keep working with Congress. They’ve been an incredibly important partner. We wouldn’t be at the table today where we are if it hadn’t been for the incredibly tough sanctions that certainly the international community, but also Congress, imposed on Iran. So we’ll keep having the discussion with them but we very firmly believe that we — our sanctions strategy needs to be linked up and in sync with our negotiating strategy, that the US needs to speak with one voice when we’re sitting down at the table here to try and negotiate, which is going to be a tough diplomatic process."

A "cautiously encouraging tone that we hear out of the new Iranian government"? Oh really?

First, let's not forget who calls the shots in Iran - Supreme Leader Khamenei. Iranian President Rouhani can say what he wants, but ultimately Khamenei decides.

And what has Khamenei being "deciding" recently?

Khamenei declared on Sunday, "The Zionist regime is an illegitimate and bastard regime" (see: http://www.jpost.com/Iranian-Threat/News/Khamenei-Zionist-regime-is-an-illegitimate-and-bastard-regime-330487).

And as reported by NBC News (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/04/21303556-american-flags-burned-as-10000-iranians-protest-on-us-embassy-siege-anniversary?lite), "At least 10,000 Iranians protested outside the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran Monday, burning American flags and effigies of Barack Obama on the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the building."

Does this sound "encouraging" to you?

Further into her talk, after refusing to answer whether Iran is making reciprocal gestures to the US, Harf declared:

"So, this is a negotiation. Nothing has been agreed to yet. Again, we're going to go to Geneva this week and continue our discussions with the P5+1 and Iran and hopefully make more progress, because it's in all of our interests, all of our partners in the Gulf, Israel, everyone's interest, to resolve this problem diplomatically."

Excuse me, Marie, but if "nothing has been agreed to yet," how can the Obama administration hope to "make more progress"?

But heck, we can all be certain that the Islamic Republic of Iran - which hangs homosexuals, stones to death women accused of adultery, tortures political dissidents, and oppresses Baha'is, Kurds, Christians and Sunnis - will be quick to respond to American kindness and forbearance.