Gorilla's Blog

The Administration is carving out an exception for China to its bill tightening sanctions on Iran.

Unlike South Korea and Japan, our supposed allies in the region, Chinese companies would suffer no punishment for trading with Tehran.

Perhaps this is a bribe to get the Chinese on board at the UN, but the reality is neither the Chinese nor the Russians are serious about imposing more sanctions.

Sooner or later, the President’s going to have to decide whether he wants to make a deal with the Iranians.

The sanctions so far aren’t stopping Tehran from nuclear development, and there’s very little international appetite for a solely punitive approach.

Gorilla thinks: “Cut to the chase and cut a deal!”

China continues to insist that diplomacy, and not sanctions, are the key to solving the Iranian nuclear problem.

The Russians are being coy about sanctions, saying they should be a last resort and not targetted at the civilian population.

And the US and Europe continue to insist that more sanctions are needed.

Iran is not cooperating with the IAEA.

So, we should dispatch a senior diplomat to Tehran to get things back on track.

Instead, we dispatch a senior diplomat to Beijing to keep things off the track.

Sooner or later, of course, we’ll need to sit down and do a bilateral deal with Tehran, but not in an election year.

Gorilla says: “Carrots and sticks are fine, but talking is cheaper!”

Not time for more sanctions on Iran, sayeth the Chinese!

And so the President has to decide: start talking directly with Iran or try to keep yet another coalition of the unwilling together.

So far, the policy seems to be, as it is on most everything these days, hit and hope.

We’d like the Iranians to come to the table, we’d like to see regime change in Tehran, we’d like to keep the Israelis from pulling the trigger.

But there’s very little we can do to achieve this until and unless bilateral talks begin.

The President is certainly smart enough to know this, but he’s also handicapped by the need to appear tough on underwear bombers.

Gorilla thinks it’s more or less a Brooklyn Dodgers scenario: “Wait til next year!”