Wow. I just can't believe it. After absolutely refusing to maintain any serious threat of force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the U.S. and its allies are now facing total failure in their quixotic efforts to negotiate Iran out of its nuclear ambitions.
Who would have ever thought a bunch of maniacal Islamic extremists would prove difficult to persuade? Who would have ever thought John Kerry would prove unpersuasive? Oh. Right. Anyone with a brain. Apparently they're going to extend the self-imposed deadline so they can claim the "process is ongoing" or something like that, but this is going nowhere as anyone could have predicted:
The cost of failure to reach a deal could be high. Iran's regional foes Israel and Saudi Arabia are watching the Vienna talks nervously. Both fear a weak deal that fails to curtail Tehran's nuclear ambitions, while a collapse of the negotiations would encourage Iran to become a threshold nuclear weapon state, something Israel has said it would never allow.
It became increasingly clear during a week of intensive negotiations between the top U.S. and Iranian diplomats that what officials close to the talks have been predicting privately for weeks is proving to be correct: a final deal is still too far off to hammer out by the parties' self-imposed deadline.
A European official said the possibility of securing a final agreement "seems physically impossible", echoing comments by Iranian officials.
With the deadline less than 24 hours away, the issue was one of several options for negotiations raised in U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's latest meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
Of all the disasters resulting from Obama's don't-bother-me-with-leadership foreign policy, this may prove to be the worst. A nuclear Iran has horrific implications for the Middle East and the rest of the world, which is why the U.S. has long maintained a policy - rhetorically, anyway - that it was simply unacceptable.
But even as we have talked that talk, we have frittered away every option for doing something about it. Obama has made clear from the get-go that he would not, under any circumstances, use force to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. He has also put gigantic pressure on Israel not to use force, which has sent one clear signal to Iran: If you build nukes in spite of your promises not to do so, you will pay no price.
Oh, sure, they're under "crushing sanctions" from the West. What kind of deterrent is that proving to be? Not much. They get lots of help from the Russians - both economically and in terms of the material they need to build the nukes. The Iranians figure, probably correctly, that successfully developing nuclear weapons puts them in a position of power both economically and geopolitically. Their response to our so-called threat is to go full-speed on their weapons program.
They certainly don't fear any consequence from the feckless Obama. And could there be a worse person to send over there representing the resolve of America than John Kerry, who has demonstrated disdain for America's leadership role in the world throughout his entire adult life?
If we wanted to stop Iran from developing nukes, the only way we were ever going to do that was with the credible threat of force. Once Obama was elected, the Iranians figured there was no such threat, and they were right.
At some point, Israel may have no choice but to make matters into its own hands. No one else has the resolve to do it.
