Obama’s latest effort to appease Iran

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration has advised the rulers of Iran not to worry about new U.S. legislation, signed into law by President Obama, that clamps visa restrictions on people who have traveled to Iran. The assurances came after Iranian officials publicly complained that the new law could dampen investment interest in their country.

Here’s the background, as explained by The Tower. After the San Bernardino terror attacks, Congress passed, and Obama signed, legislation that restricts the automatic granting of visas to individuals who travel to Iran, a country that the State Department designates as a leading state sponsor of terror. This prompted a complaint from Iran’s foreign minister, who asserted that the visa restrictions constitute a new sanction on Iran in violation of the nuclear deal.

You can read John Kerry’s response to Iran’s foreign minister here. Kerry told “His Excellency” that he is “confident that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress, which the Administration has the authority to waive, will not in any way prevent us from meeting our JCPOA commitments.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations found last week that an Iranian ballistic missile test in October violated a Security Council resolution. John wrote about Iran’s non-compliance here.

It strikes as more evidence (as if any were needed) of the craven nature of Obama’s Iran policy that the administration responds to Iranian violations of the nuclear deal by assuring the mullahs it will work around congressional anti-terrorism policy.

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