Iran Says "Jump," Obama Says "How High?"

by JASmius



As soon as I saw this story yesterday, I began my internal countdown until the other shoe dropped:

Iran said Sunday new U.S. visa regulations for visitors from thirty-eight mainly European countries but including Iran flies in the face of Tehran's landmark nuclear deal with the West.

The ISNA news agency reported Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying Tehran had consulted with European countries on countering the new law passed by Congress on Friday.

i.e. It's now Congress versus Iran, the E.U., AND the Obama Regime (see below).

"This law certainly affects economic, tourist, scientific and cultural exchanges with Iran and it contravenes the nuclear deal," Araghchi said.

All the while the mullahs continue to openly flout and eviscerate that same "deal" with utter, dripping contempt and impunity, and will now use the revocation of their Visa Waiver Program privileges to retroactively justify it.

Said revocation appears to be a much needed reintroduction of at least incremental sanity to the mullahgarchic equation:

The U.S. measure bars citizens of the thirty countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and who are also dual nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan from using the visa-free system.

It also prevents those who have travelled to those four countries since 2011, or to a country Washington has listed as supporting terrorism, from participating, deeming them a risk and requiring them to apply for a standard visa.

They should be banned from our country altogether, but this is a small step in the right direction.  But Tehran insists on having the free, unfettered run of the country on which they bellowingly promise to visit mass death on a daily basis, or they'll abrogate the "deal".  They should do us such a favor; at least that way we'd have some chance to defend ourselves instead of being led to the literal atomic slaughter.

But, once again, defending America is not the, or even a, priority of the Obama Regime; preserving Obama's "legacy" is, and the "deal" is the crown jewel of the Obama Doctrine.  So they will do everything they can to keep Iran in a deal that "facilitates" the mullahs' nuclear ambitions no matter how much it inevitabilizes a global nuclear holocaust.  Demonstrating, once again, that abiding by laws that Obama himself has signed is also not among their priorities.

The "other shoe" didn't even take twenty-four hours:

Top Tehran officials, however, complained the changes violate the terms of the nuclear deal, which says the U.S. and world powers will refrain from any policy intended to adversely affect normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran.

Kerry responded to these concerns in a [smooch] to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif — and suggested the administration could simply bypass the rules for Iran.

“I am also confident that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress, which the administration has the authority to waive, will not in any way prevent us from meeting our [nuclear deal] commitments, and that we will implement them so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran,” he said. [emphasis added]

And the punchline?  Lurch really does have that authority per the "deal" that Congress allowed him to have by preemptively throwing away their Article II, Section 2 treaty ratification power:

Kerry goes on to assure the Iranians that the White House has, “a number of potential tools available to us.” These include multiple entry business visas good for ten years and, of course, the back door built into the reform legislation which gives the [Commissar] of State the right to simply wave the visa requirements on his own authority if he finds that such a move is in the “law enforcement or national security interests of the United States.” [emphasis added]

Which is to say, "if he finds that such a move is in the 'legacy and political Agenda interests of Barack Hussein Obama'".  I don't know if there's any language in the Visa Waiver Program revocation that addresses this contradiction as to whether or not it supercedes the "deal," but I do know that the White House will simply assume that it does not.

And, once again, there is nothing Republicans can do about it:

“Instead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime, the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA39) said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

Sorry, Ed, that ship sailed eight months ago.  I hope you've gotten limber enough to have at least grown accustomed to kissing your ankles, if you know what I mean.