Obama has a mind of his own on Iran sanctions: Analyst
President Barack Obama has a “mind of his own” in dealing with Iran’s nuclear program after 6 years of pandering to “Israel lobby.”
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Speaking to Press TV in a phone interview on Saturday, Eric Draitser, the founder of Stopimperialism.com, said that at the beginning of his presidency, Obama demonstrated quite clearly that his main interest “had to do with elections and re-elections, had to with making sure that he crossed all of his t’s, dotted all of his i’s, pandered to the Israel lobby, (and) did what he was told.”
“Now, at the twilight of his presidency, as he is a lame duck, he can now proclaim that he has a mind of his own, that he will veto new sanctions on Iran,” Draitser said.
Obama on Friday called on the new Republican-controlled Congress not to impose more sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, saying he will veto any such move.
"I am asking Congress to hold off, because our negotiators, our partners, those who are most intimately involved in this, assess that it will jeopardize the possibility of providing a diplomatic solution," to Iran’s nuclear issue, Obama said.
“When a president no longer really has sway internationally, or even within domestic politics, once the president is in his lame duck years, then he will begin to move forward with a progressive agenda or something along those lines,” Draitser said.
“This is the fraud of US politics. The reality is that the policies are dictated by lobby groups, by pressure groups, by various institutions in and around Washington and within the ruling establishment in the United States,” he said.
“The Israel lobby has for long pushed for expanded sanctions against Iran and for increasingly belligerent rhetoric and belligerent policies,” he noted.
Iran and the P5+1 - the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany - are holding negotiations to work out a final deal aimed at ending the longstanding standoff over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
Tehran and its negotiating partners are set to begin a fresh round of nuclear talks in Geneva on January 18.
The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the timetable for the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as major sticking points in the talks.
