September 18, 2013

Iran’s Rowhani and Obama at UN — US Credibility From Bad to Worse, Fox News

Anne Bayefsky

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/09/18/iran-rowhani-and-obama-at-un-get-ready-for-us-credibility-to-go-from-bad-to/#ixzz2fGIFh700

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Courtesy of the United Nations, and the ONE U.N. New York hotel, the Iranian diplomatic assault team will hit New York City early next week. We know one thing about this offensive already. The standing of President Obama on the world stage, in the wake of his Syria fiasco, is going to go from very bad to much worse. In theory, President Obama could play it straight – instead of getting played. He could challenge Rouhani's bona fides directly. He could point to the sham Iranian election in which 686 candidates registered, eight were approved, and every woman disqualified. He could describe the horrific human rights abuses suffered by Iranians today, detail the nuclear centrifuges still spinning their way to weapons of mass destruction under its new president, and spell out Rouhani's hand in training Syrian President Assad's murderous thugs. But he will not. President Obama will mount the podium and demonstrate that the past is prologue. He will repeat variations of his speech to the General Assembly in 2009: "I am committed to diplomacy that opens a path to greater prosperity and a more secure peace for [Iran] if...[it] lives up to [its] obligations." Speaking in Jerusalem on September 15, 2013, Secretary Kerry made another unscripted statement that President Obama was quickly forced to realign with his foreign policy. Said Kerry: "We cannot have hollow words in the conduct of international affairs." To which the president replied: Yes, we can.