Saturday, February 7, 2015

Stephen L. Carter — Lincoln's Lesson for Obama on Iran

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met today in Munich with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as a prelude to the resumption of the P5+1 talks on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Many Democrats and Republicans alike are growing increasingly wary about how much the Barack Obama administration might give away to get a deal -- and how serious the Iranians are. The administration, for its part, insists that it will agree to nothing that jeopardizes the security of the U.S. or Israel, or allows Iran to gain a nuclear weapon.
The negotiations are apparently controversial even in Tehran, where hard-liners worry that their leaders may be giving away the store. Perhaps the need for both sides to quiet domestic critics helps explain the dust-up this week as the Obama administration said that the Iranian ballistic missile program is part of the talks, but the Iranian government insists that it isn’t.