President Obama Appears to Soften Position on Iran Nuclear Deal
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Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama appeared on Friday to have softened his position on a key element of the Iran nuclear deal: When sanctions would be lifted.
The White House has consistently said that under any nuclear agreement, sanctions must be lifted gradually as the Iranians demonstrate they are complying with the agreement.
The topic of sanctions has been described by the White House as a key element of the deal, and an answer to critics who say Iran cannot be trusted.
After the interim agreement was reached on April 2, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei insisted sanctions must be lifted immediately and the timing of sanctions relief emerged as a major sticking point to reaching a final deal.
At his joint press conference on Friday with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, President Obama was asked directly about this and, for the first time, he did not rule out lifting sanctions immediately.
In a long answer, the President said reaching a final agreement will take “some creative negotiations” and suggested that the timing of sanctions relief is less important than having the ability to re-impose sanctions if Iran does not comply with its part of the deal.
“Our main concern here is making sure that if Iran doesn’t abide by its agreement that we don’t have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops in order to reinstate sanctions,” said President Obama.
Previously the White House has been emphatic that there would be no deal unless sanctions are lifted gradually.
“It’s very clear and understood that sanctions relief will be phased,” Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said just last week. “The fact of the matter is, we have a framework. The president has said if the details don’t bear out, we won’t have a deal.”
The President also seemed to soften the U.S. position on another key Iranian issue: the purchase of the S-300 missile defense system from Russia.
The United States has strenuously objected to this because the system would help Iran defend its nuclear facilities from a military strike.
On Friday, President Obama seemed to suggest the sale of the system, which Russia says is about to go through, is no big deal and that he is “frankly surprised” the sale did not happen earlier.
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