John Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif in Lausanne. Photograph: Reuters
Josh Rogin, Bloomberg: Iran's Zarif Says Congress Can’t Stop Obama
If Iran strikes a deal with the West, all sanctions will be lifted very quickly and there’s nothing the U.S. Congress can do to stop it, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a New York audience Wednesday.
In a set of blustery and self-righteous remarks, Iran’s top diplomat assured the crowd at New York University that President Barack Obama would be compelled to stop enforcing sanctions only days after any nuclear agreement was signed and would have to figure out how to lift congressional sanctions on Iran within weeks, no matter what Congress has to say about it. He also said that any future president, even a Republican, would be compelled to stick that agreement.
Zarif also took several shots at the U.S. Senate, just as it debated amendments to a bill designed to slow the lifting of sanctions against Iran and give Congress an oversight role on the deal.
WNU Editor: He is mocking the U.S. Congress .... and he is probably right that they cannot stop this nuclear deal.
They really must be confident of something to talk this big. I don't think he or the Iranians understand the US.
ReplyDeleteJames,
ReplyDeleteIt's the 5+1 talks, so the US is just one of the players, and as far as the effects of sanctions go, the least important member.
If after there is a deal, the US walks away from the deal, the other 4 won't.
And Congress doesn't matter, because other than Trade Treaties, Congress since Reagan, almost never ratifies a Treaty, so from Bush I on, the President's signature has been "good enough" for Foreign Policy.
How many manors or large estates survived that Fall of the Roman Empire under the original Roman owners?
ReplyDeleteFFS how did Aezino get his manor 1500 years ago? It wasn't through inheritance from a Roman patrician.
Does anyone remember any roman senator of note after the start of the Principate?
Boehner occasionally gets his feathers ruffled and clucks some brave noises.
McConnell is useless. He is tough in a primary or when counting votes for the Combine and weakling otherwise.
On another note why should the U.s ratify a UN treaty. This is the organization that puts Iran in charge of the human rights or women's rights committees at the UN. Its' UN peacekeepers rape women right left and center in the Congo for over a decade. If that is how the UN operate, how could its' treaties be any good?
Anzino,
DeleteYou know that the whole reason that Iran is st the table,
Is because of a two decade long program, headed by the US, of UNSC Sanctions, right?
And that with out the UNSC actions, Iran would be free of sanctions, other than US sanctions, which because the US has almost no trade with Iran, would mean nothing.
And, you are aware that the UNSC, is not the UN, right?
Probably not.
Absolutely James. From the picture, if Javad Zarif was a cat there would be feathers hanging out the side of his mouth. The face on Lurch tells it all.
ReplyDeleteIf the people who control Iran were not in agreement with Sarif's comments he would not have made them. It is like Iran is teasing the US to do something.
I concur James .... I do not think he understands the U.S. at all .... but his character has always been one of a bully .... and his comments on the U.S. this past Wednesday should not surprise anyone.
ReplyDeleteI think he understands the US more than most Americans do.
DeleteOther than trade treaties, the US Senate hasn't ratified a treaty, since 1997. US Presidents instead, simply dictate that the arms of the US Government, follow the dictates of the Treaties.
It took the US two decades of politics and horsetrading, to get the UNSC, to apply sanctions that actually had an impact on Iran.
Once they are lifted, they won't be coming back.
"And, you are aware that the UNSC, is not the UN, right?
ReplyDeleteProbably not."
No, I have hard time with acronyms.
We will need an update of the book 'Trading with the Enemy'. Instead of the NAZIs we will have a new cast of villains. After all trade did stop World War 2.
Bellicose language from Herr Hitler, Bellicose language from Khamanei, it's all good. Just words nothing but words. Maybe we could bring back the concept of the co-prosperity sphere or of the president's spouse running the country.
Anzino, given your comments on the UN and the UNSC, and how you conflate them,
ReplyDeleteIt's more like "definately not".
If the UNSC were to be disbanded, about half the US's " soft power" in the world, would disappear overnight.