If parading American sailors with their hands in the air constitutes an “appropriate response” by Iran, as Secretary of State John Kerry says, what’s unacceptable?
Nothing, apparently — given Team Obama’s undeniable desperation to preserve and protect its nuclear deal.
Tehran, after all, had every incentive to resolve the situation — 10 sailors on two riverine vessels accidentally drifting into Iranian waters — quickly and quietly.
Iran is just days away from the formal lifting of economic sanctions, which will unfreeze $50 billion in long-locked-up Iranian assets by next Monday.
Instead, Tehran chose to create what any other nation would deem an international incident: It photographed the captives kneeling at gunpoint (violating the Geneva Convention) then filmed them making an abject apology for their “mistake” (violation No. 2).
The lone woman sailor was forced to cover her hair, and the head of Iran’s armed forces boasted that this “should be a lesson for troublemakers in the US Congress,” meaning those who want new sanctions for Tehran’s illegal ballistic-missile program.
But Kerry, Vice President Joe Biden and White House officials couldn’t wait to praise the Iranian regime, calling its response a “testament” to diplomacy.
Rubbish. Tehran understands that President Obama has no intention of letting anything it does undermine what he considers his major foreign-policy triumph. The Iranians have pegged him as weak — and nothing Obama’s done tells them otherwise.
So they know whatever they do will be spun into a positive development — proof that, as Biden said, “this is the way nations should do it.”
Meanwhile, five other Americans remain long-term hostages in Iran — with no sign they’ll be released anytime soon.