Why is Obama defending Iran from Congress?

US President Barack Obama called on Congress to refrain from tightening sanctions against Iran, expressing the view that this could lead to the failure of American diplomacy.

US President Barack Obama called on Congress to refrain from tightening sanctions against Iran, expressing the view that this could lead to the failure of American diplomacy."It makes no sense. That's why I will veto any new law on sanctions that threaten to undermine this progress. The Americans expect from us that we go to war only in extreme case, and I insist that we should be guided by this wisdom," the US president said.As senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies Vladimir Sazhin noted in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, the Iranian nuclear issue, around which debates rage, is complex politically, both from the economic and from the diplomatic point of view. "One of the difficulties lies in the fact that forces in Iran and in the United States are against a positive solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. However, I believe that the international negotiators of the group of six, all these six countries are interested in a final solution to this issue. There are a variety of reasons. The US (I mean of course, the Obama administration), and the EU, Russia and China, including Iran, all are interested in solving this problem. Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama have put a lot of effort into seeking a resolution of this problem. Both presidents in their campaign statements said that they would do their best to solve the problem," the expert stressed, adding that Iran and the United States have powerful opposition groups that oppose their governments' policies on this issue."This means the situation is quite complicated. In recent years, negotiations of the group of six and Iran have made significant progress. Over the past year much more progress was made than in the last previous 10 years. And there is a certain chance that this problem will be solved," said Sazhin.These shifts cause dissatisfaction among the opponents of this compromise solution. "The US Congress, where there is a majority of the Republicans, that means it is in opposition to Democrat Obama, said that they will prepare a bill to impose new sanctions against Iran," he said.Such an approach has been criticized by the US president, who considers it to be counterproductive.At the same time, the expert stressed that this position of the White House should not be seen as a change in Washington's approach to the problems of the Middle East. "This applies to quite specific, narrow areas of work in the negotiating process with Iran, that does not mean that the United States is reconsidering its approach to traditional allies -to Israel, to the Persian Gulf monarchies. The main task here is not to harm the negotiating process with Iran, but it does not mean that the United States of America should spoil its relations with Saudi Arabia and Israel to establish relations with Iran, absolutely not," Stanislav Pritchin concluded.US President Barack Obama called on Congress to refrain from tightening sanctions against Iran, expressing the view that this could lead to the failure of American diplomacy.

"It makes no sense. That's why I will veto any new law on sanctions that threaten to undermine this progress. The Americans expect from us that we go to war only in extreme case, and I insist that we should be guided by this wisdom," the US president said.

As senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies Vladimir Sazhin noted in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, the Iranian nuclear issue, around which debates rage, is complex politically, both from the economic and from the diplomatic point of view. "One of the difficulties lies in the fact that forces in Iran and in the United States are against a positive solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. However, I believe that the international negotiators of the group of six, all these six countries are interested in a final solution to this issue. There are a variety of reasons. The US (I mean of course, the Obama administration), and the EU, Russia and China, including Iran, all are interested in solving this problem. Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama have put a lot of effort into seeking a resolution of this problem. Both presidents in their campaign statements said that they would do their best to solve the problem," the expert stressed, adding that Iran and the United States have powerful opposition groups that oppose their governments' policies on this issue.

"This means the situation is quite complicated. In recent years, negotiations of the group of six and Iran have made significant progress. Over the past year much more progress was made than in the last previous 10 years. And there is a certain chance that this problem will be solved," said Sazhin.
These shifts cause dissatisfaction among the opponents of this compromise solution. "The US Congress, where there is a majority of the Republicans, that means it is in opposition to Democrat Obama, said that they will prepare a bill to impose new sanctions against Iran," he said.

Such an approach has been criticized by the US president, who considers it to be counterproductive. At the same time, the expert stressed that this position of the White House should not be seen as a change in Washington's approach to the problems of the Middle East. "This applies to quite specific, narrow areas of work in the negotiating process with Iran, that does not mean that the United States is reconsidering its approach to traditional allies -to Israel, to the Persian Gulf monarchies. The main task here is not to harm the negotiating process with Iran, but it does not mean that the United States of America should spoil its relations with Saudi Arabia and Israel to establish relations with Iran, absolutely not," Stanislav Pritchin concluded.