So asks Lee Smith, who notes that time and again the Obama administration has defended and excused the Islamic Republic’s lies, its devious behavior, and its escalating demands:
In both making Tehran’s case to U.S. allies (from the White House’s P5+1 negotiating partners, to Middle East friends like Israel and Saudi Arabia), and shaping public perception of Iranian actions, the White House has made itself an indispensable friend to the clerical regime. Iran doesn’t have to worry about justifying its behavior—like its failure to meet obligations under the interim nuclear agreement and its outright lies—because it knows the [Obama] administration will do all the heavy lifting. . . .
The Iranians . . . violated the Joint Plan of Action [JPOA, the preliminary deal made in November 2013] by busting through the one-million-barrels-per-day monthly limit that the agreement puts on their energy exports. . . . The State Department used to rationalize this violation by predicting that in the subsequent month Iran’s exports would drop, thereby balancing out the average of their monthly exports. But as it became clear that the monthly exports were not ever going to balance out, the administration argued that Iran wasn’t really cheating because the JPOA has a loophole for condensates. . . .
The administration has also politicized intelligence so that Iran’s misbehavior never comes to light. . . . In short, it’s hard not to see the administration as Iran’s lawyer. Maybe it’s for the best of all possible reasons. Maybe the Obama administration really will get a good agreement with Iran over its nuclear program. But if it does, it will probably be years—maybe even decades—before the world knows for sure. Right now, the Iranians refuse to come clean about their nuclear activities, while the White House, instead of compelling Tehran to uphold its part of the deal, is helping them cover it up.
More about: Barack Obama, Iran, Iran nuclear program, Politics & Current Affairs, U.S. Foreign policy