US Shrugs Off Iran Diplomacy Efforts

Claims 'Progress' on Sanctions Yet Again

by Jason Ditz, May 13, 2010

US officials today mocked the diplomacy effort by Turkey and Brazil to come to some sort of accommodation on Iran’s civilian nuclear program, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly calling Turkey’s Foreign Minister to inform him the effort isn’t “serious.”

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley says Clinton informed FM Davutoglu that the effort was “an attempt to stop Security Council action without actually taking steps to address international concerns.”

At the same time as officials are making such open efforts to sabotage the Turko-Brazilian third party enrichment effort, State Department officials are also presenting it as a “last chance” for diplomacy.

Yet the Obama Administration, for all its talk of seeking a diplomatic solution, has shown remarkable bad faith in its approach to Iran, repeatedly blocking attempts at negotiations even though it is increasingly clear that support for the sanctions simply isn’t there while the prospect of diplomacy looms.

Despite this, US Ambassador Susan Rice today insisted “good progress” was being made on the sanctions, a remark which would likely have carried more weight if the administration hadn’t made virtually identical claims on at least a weekly basis for several months now, and without any of the Security Council members apparently changing their minds on their positions.

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