Israel Matzav

Obama pushing to weaken Iran sanctions

But of course. President Obama is pushing to further weaken the Kirk-Menendez compromise bill that was unanimously passed by the US Senate last week.

In a plea to House and Senate negotiators writing a broad defense bill, the administration has asked for substantive changes to a provision that would target foreign financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank of Iran, including a six-month delay for all the penalties. But the chief sponsors of the sanctions, which the Senate resoundingly backed last week on a 100-0 vote, are resisting the request.

In a letter late Monday to House and Senate negotiators, Sens. Mark Kirk, a Republican, and Bob Menendez, a Democrat, pleaded with them to leave the sanctions intact.

The penalties are "tough, responsible and, most importantly, bipartisan," the two lawmakers wrote. "It provides the administration another key tool to curb Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, while keeping oil markets stable and encouraging other nations to reduce Iranian oil purchases. With the support of every single United States senator, it needs no alternations."

Lawmakers said they hope to complete work on the massive, $662 billion defense bill by the end of the week.

I don't think there's any doubt where Benedict Obama stands on Iran developing a nuclear weapon. I think the photoshop above says it all.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Mark Kirk, Robert Menendez

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:39 PM