Israel Matzav

Obama administration: 'We stopped sanctioning Iranian human rights abusers after the nuke deal'

Remember how the Obama administration promised us last summer that sanctions would be 'snapped back' into place in the event of violations by Iran of the (still unsigned) JCPOA? Well, they're now admitting that in at least one area, the sanctions are gone - permanently. Not one Iranian human rights abuser has been designated as such since the P 5+1 (but not Iran) signed the JCPOA. And Congress is awakening to the reality that it was fooled.

Republicans and Democrats alike are now accusing the administration of misleading Congress about its commitment to sanctions and saying that it has avoided such designations in order to prevent the Iranian regime from walking away from the deal.

“We were told during this process that getting the nuclear issue off the table was so critical and we could actually expect Iran to engage in additional destabilizing activity,” Rep. David Cicilline (D., R.I.) said during a House Foreign Affairs Committee examining the administration’s promises regarding Iran.

“We were assured that this would give us an opportunity to push back hard in these other areas because the danger of a nuclear Iran would be off the table, and I was very persuaded by that,” said Cicilline, a supporter of the nuclear agreement.

Cicilline asked Ambassador Stephen Mull, the administration’s lead coordinator for implementing the nuclear deal, what the administration has “done since the signing of the [nuclear deal] with regard to imposing sanctions on human rights violators in Iran.” Mull admitted that the U.S. has not taken any action.

“There has not been a specific sanction on human rights cases since the signing” of the deal, Mull said.

Cicilline questioned why, since the administration promised to take action, it had not done so in the face of rising human rights abuses by Iran.

Mull emphasized that the administration is concerned about human rights in Iran and has raised the issue in meetings with regime officials.

In case you missed it, Cicilline is a Democrat and supported the deal.

Meanwhile, the White House plans to block any attempt to impose new sanctions on Iran, because... you know... the legacy....

“Congress wants to impose new pressure against Iranian human rights violations, but the Obama administration keeps blocking new action. The administration’s excuse is they already have all the tools they need,” said one source who works closely with Congress on the Iran issue. “What today’s admission shows is that they might have those tools, but they’re certainly not using them.”

Make sure to read the whole thing.  The unsaid problem in this whole affair is that reimposing sanctions is like closing the barn door after the cow has escaped. It would take years to new sanctions to begin to have the effect that the old ones had. As one Presidential candidate asked, "What difference does it make?"

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, human rights abuses, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Obama's legacy

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:28 PM