Having successfully convinced most of the UN Security Council to agree to new sanctions against Iran, the US angrily condemned Turkey today for its role in opposing the sanctions, calling its no vote on the issue a “slap in the face” to President Obama.
The State Department has followed up with a demand that Turkey and Brazil, the other nation to vote no on the resolution, offer some sort of explanation for their actions.
If the State Department uses its imagination, however, the explanation will be readily apparent. After the US spent five months selling the sanctions as punishment for Iran’s refusal to agree to a third party enrichment deal, Turkey and Brazil dispatch officials to Iran and successfully finalized the deal with the Iranians, only to have the US angrily condemn them for pushing the deal and insisting it was “too late.”
Turkey angrily shot back that it would have been dishonourable to vote for the sanctions, and insisted that it still believes that diplomacy is the only way to solve the nuclear dispute.
