World

Obama: Iran Economic Sanctions May Spark War

Neil Munro White House Correspondent
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President Barack Obama promised to veto any renewed economic sanctions against Iran, and said that advocates of more sanctions could start a war with Iran.

“I will veto a bill that comes to my desk,” he told reporters during a press conference Jan. 16.

Additional sanctions, even if they were not implemented, he said, would violate an earlier U.S. commitment to not impose new sanctions against Iran. “So the the likelihood of the entire negotiations collapsing is very high, and if that happens, there is no constraint on Iran,” he said.

Without negotiations, “the risks and likelihood that this ends up at some point as a military confrontation is heightened, and Congress will have to own that,” he claimed.

But Obama undercut his claim of talks-or-war by suggesting he would tighten sanctions if Iran doesn’t agree to a no-nuke deal.

“Now if Iran, ultimately, ends up not being able to say yes… then we are going to have to explore other options… [for example] tighten the [economic] screws,” he said.

He also downplayed the chance of war with Iran if negotiations fail. “I am not, repeat not, suggesting that we are on a war footing if negations fail.”

Obama has been conducting talks with Iran for several years.

The formal nuclear talks, dubbed the P5+1 talks, began February 2014 but have dragged on past their initial deadline.

The delays have frustrated regional leaders in Saudi Arabia, Israel and other countries.

Iran has used Obama’s tenure to build up its public and secret nuclear infrastructure, and recently announced it would build two more nuclear reactors.

The oil-rich country has been run by an revolutionary Islamic theocracy since 1979, which has repeatedly promised to overthrow numerous Arab governments and to destroy Israel.

Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon, but its leaders have repeatedly said they will build up a nuclear force.

Iran’s nuclear buildup has been greatly slowed by US.-led economic sanctions, but Obama has rolled back many of those sanctions to keep the negotiations going.

Democratic and Republican legislators in the House and Senate are pushing a bill that would rebuild sanctions, and recently said they’ve got enough votes to overcome a veto by Obama.

The U.S. should not add more sanctions against Iran, Obama insisted.

Other countries have accepted the current set of sanctions against Iran because “we have shown that we are credibly trying to solve this problem and avert some sort of military showdown,” he claimed.

“In that context, there is no good argument for us to try to undercut, undermine, the negotiations until they’ve played themselves out,” he said.

Through his comments, Obama downplayed Iran’s revolutionary theology and ideology.

Instead, he suggested that the U.S.-Iranian conflict exists because Iran’s leaders incorrectly distrust the United States.

“Iran is deeply suspicious of the West, deeply suspicions of us,” said Obama.

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