Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com – 2015-07-24 01:00:45
Sen. Paul Bashes Iran Deal, Says US Must Prepare Military Force
Sen. Paul Bashes Iran Deal,
Says US Must Prepare Military Force
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(July 23, 2015) — From his entry into the crowded race for Republican nominee for president in 2016, Sen. Rand Paul (R – KY) has struggled to shake the reputation of being slightly less hawkish than the rest of the field, and today attacked the Iran nuclear deal during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting.
In his comments, Sen. Paul towed the party line of Iran as inherently untrustworthy, and took comments of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei out of context, claiming when he said America “didn’t stop” Iran from making nuclear arms, he meant they were going to.
Secretary of State John Kerry corrected this point, noting that Khamenei had issued a religious fatwa against ever acquiring nuclear arms long before the talks began, and was making the point that the deal was “stopping” them from doing something they had no intention of doing in the first place.
While Sen. Paul insisted in the comments to Kerry that he supports a nuclear deal in theory, he also declared that “diplomacy doesn’t work without military force,” and insisted he was ready to endorse a US military attack on Iran to “delay” them from getting nuclear arms.
Incredibly, Sen. Paul acknowledged that attacking Iran would likely force them to try to get nuclear arms, and would also lead to the expulsion of UN inspectors from the country, but insisted he was still supportive of the idea of an attack even if it ended up with Iran getting a bomb faster because of it.
Sen. Paul’s comments seem to reflect a difficult shift in his talking points, as he’s still using some of the arguments against attacking Iran in his comments, despite having changed his official position toward endorsement of the attacks themselves.
White House: Idea of a Better Iran Deal Is a ‘Fantasy’
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(July 23, 2015) — Faced with a solid week and a half of complaints from Israeli officials, the Israel Lobby, and US Congressional hawks, the Obama Administration is lashing complaints against the terms of the Iran deal, insisting the “better deal” argument is an unreasonable fantasy.
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly complained that he believes the deal agreed to was a bad one, and has insisted the US should’ve held out for a better deal. White House officials noted that Netanyahu’s demands, effectively for Iran to completely capitulate and get nothing in return, was just never going to happen.
While Netanyahu is widely believed to be holding out for a multi-billion dollar aid package from the US as reparations, officials also expressed frustration at the difficulty of getting him to negotiate even on that issue, saying “it’s hard to have reasoned discussions with Israel.”
With most of the Congressional opposition stemming from Israeli opposition, talking with them about the pact seems no easier, as the Senate is determined to echo demands for a better deal and even less willing to lay out what they imagined that would look like, or how to get there.
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