You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Pages: 1
Re: Obama wants Iran sanctions within 'weeks'
WASHINGTON (AFP) '“ US President Barack Obama said he wanted tough new UN sanctions imposed on Iran within "weeks" as visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy blasted Tehran's "mad" nuclear race.
But Obama admitted that key world powers had "not yet" closed wide gaps on the specifics of the biting new measures, as he and Sarkozy made an apparently coordinated effort to up pressure on China and Russia for action.
"My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring," Obama said, warning, as he faces rising domestic pressure on the issue, that he was not interested in waiting months for the new United Nations measures to be imposed.
"I am interested in seeing that regime in place within weeks," Obama said during a joint press conference with Sarkozy which saw both leaders go out of their way to profess US-French friendship.
Sarkozy indicated after his closed Oval Office talks with Obama that months of diplomacy to prepare the way for sanctions must now come to fruition.
"The time has come to take decisions. Iran cannot continue its mad race," Sarkozy said, adding that Europe would stand united in the push for sanctions.
The joint presidential pressure came as G8 foreign ministers meeting in Canada urged "in the strongest possible terms" that Iran cooperate with five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.Related article:G8 ministers pressure Iran, Afghanistan
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted the next few weeks would see "intense negotiation" in the Security Council on Iran, which the West suspects of developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
The Obama administration has spent months trying to convince China, which has been reluctant to embrace tough sanctions on Iran, to join the international effort.
Russia has been more amenable, but it is still unclear whether Moscow will embrace the "biting" measures envisaged by Washington.
"Do we have unanimity in the international community? Not yet. And that's something that we have to work on," Obama said, admitting that Iran was a major oil producer and had a plethora of commercial partners.
Sarkozy and Obama said their talks also covered a long list of international issues, including Afghanistan, US peace efforts in the Middle East and the global economic recovery.
The French leader said it was "great news" that the Obama administration had now made financial reform its top priority.
The issue has provoked friction between Washington and Europe, with the United States less willing to call for stringent efforts to regulate global hedge funds than some key leaders in Europe.
Obama also promised that a Pentagon tender for a new airborne tanker for the US air force would be "free and fair."
Sarkozy said he trusted Obama, and that the European aerospace giant EADS would resubmit a bid, following a row over claims the United States was favoring US-based Boeing for the contract.
Both leaders sought to scotch rumors of bad chemistry between them, calling one another by their first names, ahead of an intimate dinner hosted by the Obamas for Sarkozy and ex-supermodel wife Carla Bruni.
Obama called Sarkozy "my dear friend," while Sarkozy appeared eager to end years of US-French tensions.
"There may be disagreements, but never for the wrong reasons. And as we are very transparent on both sides, there's confidence, there's trust," he said before the two presidents walked out of the press conference with hands over each other's shoulders.
The Sarkozys took time to sample the culinary delights of the US capital, stopping in at famed restaurant "Ben's Chili Bowl," which Obama has also visited, to eat half-smoke hot dogs.
The two leaders met at divergent moments of their political fortunes.
Sarkozy was forced to backtrack on some of his signature reforms, and suffered a humiliation in recent regional elections.
But Obama is reveling in his historic health reform law and clinched a landmark nuclear arms reduction deal with Russia last week.
The private dinner between the couples marks the first time a foreign leader has dined with the Obamas in their private residence at the White House and is seen as a fence-mending exercise after Obama bowed out of a European summit.
"You invite an important head of state to a state dinner, but a friend you invite to your home," said one western diplomat.
But the White House denied it was going out of its way to satisfy Sarkozy with presidential trappings.
"It doesn't seem totally out of the ordinary," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
The French couple left the White House late Tuesday after their two-hour dinner and headed to Andrews Air Force base where they caught their flight back to Paris.
- Communist China
- Rep: 130
Re: Obama wants Iran sanctions within 'weeks'
Costs less in America than just about anywhere else. I'm not one to preach Malthusian theory or warn of a day when we have no more oil, but it really would make sense to find an alternative source of fuel production. Oil costs too much, fuels wars abroad, and weakens our national security.
Re: Obama wants Iran sanctions within 'weeks'
Years ago, a guy developed a car engine that could run 100-miles on a gallon of water, and he was paid off.
The only way we will transition into alternative energy, is when the U.S. can get the oil companies to transition. Because if they go out of business, our economy takes a big hit. They have to take big oil with them in the transition.
Re: Obama wants Iran sanctions within 'weeks'
Its inconvenient and expensive to make the shift, so they will just keep using it until the last barrel rolls off the boat.
Rapeseed oil and other plant oil is apparently just as effective, mabye they plan to sook the arab countries dry of fossil oil, knowing that when it eventually does run out, the middle east doesnt have the climate for mass agricultural development of these "green" alternatives, so in the long term it will keep the arabs down and kinda hold the region back and keep the majority in the dark ages. I'm drunk and thats just a fleeting pondering. Usually a 3AM walking home from the pub kind of illumination.
Re: Obama wants Iran sanctions within 'weeks'
Costs less in America than just about anywhere else.
Considering the fact our troops are sitting in two giant puddles of it and on their way to a third puddle, it should be hovering around $1.50 a gallon.
I find it interesting that the more mideast 'vassal states' we acquire, the more expensive it gets.
Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose? 
It's the equivalent of having a thirst for Dr Pepper, raiding several distribution centers and then charging yourself 20 bucks a 12 pack.
Re: Obama wants Iran sanctions within 'weeks'
Yeah, but James, you're not thinking of the "bigger picture". 
And Olorin, you were on the right track. It's not about keeping the middle east in the dark ages. It's about American-izing the east, and having them progress towards a free-market capitalist Democracy, on our terms, and our time table. It's a power game.
Re: Obama wants Iran sanctions within 'weeks'
All current and future wars revolve around the acquiring of resources. North Korea has a limited nuke capacity, and will certainly build more. We're not there.
Iran is running its mouth just like Saddam did, and we're on our way in.
There's one huge difference between these two nations: Oil.
China is raping Africa of its resources, the U.S. is walking through the Middle East , Russia has its own oil supply but is strategically building partnerships in our hemisphere revolving around energy, not a military chess move. Europe depends on other nations and the peaceful nature of Russia to keep those pipelines flowing. Russia could send that continent into absolute chaos just by turning off the spigots.
In a nightmare scenario of a conflict between us and Russia, I could see the EU immediately dissolving NATO and signing a pact with Russia just to save its own ass in the short term(no offense to our Euro members).
You're not going to see any more Invasion of Grenadas or airstrikes on the Serbs because they're doing "ethnic cleansing". Those types of conflicts just aren't in our nation's interest anymore. Obama was pretty much willing to let US hostages in North Korea rot, while Reagan would have immediately risked World War III to get them out dead or alive.
For the U.S. dollar to stay alive, oil has to continually be pegged to it. The Middle East threatens abandoning it from time to time, and this is followed by U.S. action in the region. Iran is threatening to abandon the dollar, and now we need 'sanctions" in place when we've known about their nuclear program since the 90s.
I know the war in Iraq is controversial and I'm not really trying to fan those flames, but when we went in there it was an obvious chess move to surround Iran for a future conflict.
We have absolute carte blanche in the region.
The world and our role in it is evolving. We are not the "World's Policemen" anymore looking to bitch slap evil every time it rears its ugly head. We are a bankrupt corporation on the hunt for resources and the survival of our mythical role as the "lone superpower".
Anything or any country that tries to stand in the way of this will be systematically destroyed, whether its Bush or Obama calling in the air strikes.
I think Flagg is still in Iraq. While we do disagree on some of these issues, I do like to see his opinion on these matters as he is directly in the line of fire.
Pages: 1
