In a column published by the London-based Arabic news website
Elaph, Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, a former intelligence chief and Ambassador to the United States, has blasted President Hussein Obama's sellout to Iran, claiming it will '
wreak havoc' in the Middle East.
“Serious pundits in the media and in politics say that President
Obama’s Iran deal is ‘déjà vu’ in relation to President Clinton’s North
Korean nuclear deal.”
President Clinton’s decision was based on
strategic foreign policy analysts, top secret national intelligence, and
the desire “to save the people of North Korea from starvation,” wrote
Prince Bandar, in reference to the 1994 “Agreed Framework” between North
Korea and the United States that aimed to freeze the country’s nuclear
power program.
The agreement finally broke down in 2003 when
North Korea announced its withdrawal from the international Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and later declared it had manufactured
nuclear weapons. The country now has as many as 20 nuclear warheads,
according to Chinese intelligence.
President
Clinton “would not have made that decision” had he known it was based
on “a major intelligence failure” and “wrong foreign policy analysis,”
wrote Prince Bandar, nephew of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
But
“President Obama made his decision to go ahead with the Iran nuclear
deal fully aware that the strategic foreign policy analysis, the
national intelligence information, and America’s allies in the region’s
intelligence all predict not only the same outcome of the North Korean
nuclear deal but worse - with the billions of dollars that Iran will
have access to,” Prince Bandar stated.
“It will wreak havoc in
the Middle East which is already living in a disastrous environment, in
which Iran is a major player in the destabilization of the region,” he
continued.
Why would Obama go ahead with such an agreement,
“knowing what President Clinton didn’t know when he made his deal with
North Korea?” questioned the former diplomat.
It’s because Obama “ideologically believes what he is doing is right,” said Prince Bandar.
Yes, that's precisely right. Things sure have changed since Obama bowed to the Saudis in 2009.
Carl,
ReplyDeleteYou should have continued for one more sentence from the Al Arabiya article. Bandar's line about Obama likely considering lethal side effects to be acceptable collateral damage was an insult (in addition to being very true.)
s/, pre-Boomer Marine brat