Barack Obama to Haaretz: Turn up the pressure on Tehran

[oberliner]

Illinois Senator Barack Obama, a leading Democratic candidate for U.S. president, has joined the ranks of legislators who are actively working to halt Iran's nuclear program.

"Iran continues to be a major threat," he told Haaretz yesterday in an exclusive interview, "to both the U.S. and some of our allies".

Obama calls for an urgent escalation of economic pressure on Iran, and backed this up yesterday by announcing his Iran Sanctions Enabling Act. If the bill is passed, it will make it easier for investors to know which companies are economically involved with Iran and to act accordingly.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/860490.html

[BigRed1975]

1. Precisely the right moves...

Economic sanctions coupled with low level talks to keep the channels open. With those low level talks you communicate a schedule of benefits for transparent behavior. Iran has a right to nuclear power for peaceful purposes. All they need do is behave in a responsible and transparent manner and they will recieve cooperation from the world community in obtaining that use. But despite what many here say, their actions are both rhetorically and their continued practice of enrichment indicates that their intent goes past just peaceful use. Enriched fuel from Russia has been offerred but they refused. Iran wants to learn enrichment techniques so they can parlay that knowledge into taking the next step towards weapons grade bombs.

The world will have a serious problem if Iran with its current leadership obtains nukes. Some may argue that they wouldn't use them because of the MADD doctrine, but that assumes that a MADD Man is not in charge. It's not whether we believe they would use them, it's whether the Saudis or the Israelis believe they would use them.

Big Red