Courtesy of Mish.
Big splash in the news today following the Wall Street Journal report Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran’s Khamenei About Fighting Islamic State.
Obama’s exact letter has not been published (yet), but the subject matter includes shared interests in combating ISIS coupled with hope of progress on nuclear talks.
The Journal reports “cooperation on Islamic State was largely contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program by a Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline” according to correspondents briefed on the letter.
As with Russia more recently, the sanctions against Iran did not work, and will never work. Sanctions in general don’t work, period.
The Republican response is as one might expect. Worse yet, Senators Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) introduced bipartisan legislation to intensify sanctions.
“The best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to quickly pass the bipartisan Menendez-Kirk legislation—not to give the Iranians more time to build a bomb,” Mr. Kirk said Wednesday.
Good Idea to Open Dialog with Iran?
Was Obama’s letter to Iran a good idea? Of course it was. Dialog is generally a good idea. Obama’s letter opening up discussions with Iran is one of the few things he has done right.
Of course, this dialog comes on the heels of unwise sanctions, so all it does is get us back to where we should have been years ago.
In the meantime though, the odds of success have improved dramatically.
The Journal reports “U.S.-Iran relations have thawed considerably over the past year, following the election of President Hasan Rouhani. He and Mr. Obama shared a 15-minute phone call in September 2013, and Messrs. Kerry and Zarif have regularly held direct talks on the nuclear diplomacy and regional issues.“
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