How Has President Obama Been Weak and Lost Credibility Over Iran: Answering a Reader’s Question

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
13 April '10

A reader asks [my summary]: Why do you and so many people in the Arabic-speaking world view President Barack Obama as weak regarding Iran. After all, he doesn’t want to go to war with Iran or support an Israeli attack. And isn’t the fault due mainly to the Europeans, Russia and China?

My response: There are a number of reasons for this but let me focus on three. First, Obama’s total failure to implement increased sanctions on Iran--whether or not they were effective—after 15 months in office is a huge failure. If the media would be treating Obama as a normal president he would be criticized and ridiculed for this on a daily basis.

Remember, the president first said he would increase sanctions last September and failed to do so. He then set a December deadline and again did not act. Now in April 2010 the prospects for sanctions still seem poor.

Indeed, the administration has not even announced its plan. What we do know is that the administration has announced in advance that it will not propose sanctions that might hurt Iran’s economy which means they—that is, targeted sanctions on a small number of rulers and regime institutions--will be a joke.

Aside from this, congressional proposals for reasonable sanctions on Iranian energy imports were ignored by the administration. The White House discouraged Congress from acting, too.

True, traditionally the Europeans have been very wimpy about such actions. But in this particular case, Britain, France, and Germany are ahead of the United States. Obama is holding them back rather than vice-versa. The EU as a whole is a problem since a country like Sweden can paralyze action. But it was Obama’s choice to seek backing from the entire EU rather than take the lead along with the three main European allies.

This problem arises partly from Obama’s philosophy of refusing to be a world leader but just “one of the guys” going along with a sanction. While the world doesn’t want the United States to be too unilateral—their criticism of George W. Bush—Obama has gone too far in the opposite direction, which is equally bad.

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