"Strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela – these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we're going to wipe you off the planet."Barrack Obama, May 18, 2008
Despite their (Iran's) posturing that their nuclear power is only for, um, for civilian use, that they, uh, continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization, and that is not acceptable, to the international community, not just to the United States....The next step is sanctions...Barack Obama, March 30, 2010
French President Sarkozy and United States President Obama met in Washington to discuss recent world affairs, including France's role in Afghanistan, The new $35 billion refueling tanker, and Sarkozy's agreement with Obama in condemning Israel's recent settlement activity in Jerusalem.
One of the main topics of discussion was Iran's nuclear program. For his part, Sarkozy told reporters, "Iran cannot continue its mad race" toward acquiring nuclear weapons. The time has come to take decisions,"
President Barack Obama declared Tuesday he hopes to have international sanctions against Iran in place "within weeks," not months, because of its continuing nuclear program. He acknowledged he still lacks full support at the United Nations.
"Do we have unanimity in the international community? Not yet," Obama said. "And that's something that we have to work on. We think that we are in a much stronger position to get robust sanctions now than we were a year ago prior to us initiating our strategy. But it's still difficult, partly because, let's be honest, Iran is a oil producer, and there are a lot of countries around the world that, regardless of Iran's offenses, are thinking that their commercial interests are more important to them than these long-term, geopolitical interests."
According to Obama, he and Sarkozy are "inseparable" in their thinking concerning Iran. So far, Russia and China, two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, have expressed reservations concerning new sanctions, as have several of the rotating members. Of the dissenters, only Russia and China can actually veto any resolution concerning international Sanctions.
Obama also said, "the door remains open if the Iranians choose to walk though it," but indicated that his patience with Iran has all but run out. "My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring. So I'm not interested in waiting months for a sanctions regime to be in place. I'm interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks....We are confident right now that the international community is unified around, uh, Iran's "misbehavior" in this area. How China operates at the security council as we pursue sanctions is something that we are gonna have to see."
He went on to express his optimism that Russia has adopted an attitude of agreement with the Security Council, stating that the Russians have clearly seen that Iran is not serious about solving the nuclear arms dispute between Iran and the international community.
Watch the first video in the list. Beck doesn't have a thing on this schmuck.
The second video is Obama's unexpected press conference on the sanctions.