CONGRESS TO MOVE ON IRAN – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  It's perfectly clear that Republicans in Congress, and many Dems as well, have little faith in this administration's foreign policy.  And they don't intend to remain silent about it, especially as regards Iran.  From The Hill: 

Key senators are vowing to move on sanctions legislation against Iran as early as January, when Republicans take over the upper chamber.

"You're going to see Congress and the Senate play a much more robust role in the first quarter," said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who is poised to be chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday at the 2014 Foreign Policy Forum.

U.S. and Western allies agreed last month to a seven-month extension of talks with Iran in hopes of reaching an agreement to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

Senators from both parties, though, fear that Iran continue its nuclear program and say they will press ahead with sanctions regardless.

Supporters will likely have the 60 votes needed to push sanctions next year, despite the opposition of the Obama administration, which fears legislation could scuttle ongoing negotiations.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the current Foreign Relations chairman, said Tuesday he was working to refine a bill he co-authored with Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and hopes it "could be pursued at the earliest possible moment."

Their bill would re-impose sanctions that were temporarily lifted on Iran during negotiations, if no deal is reached.

"After a year of negotiations for which it seems that we have moved towards the Iranians, but the Iranians have made very little progress towards the views that the international community holds ... they need some incentive to move off of their maximalist positions, while we continuously minimize our positions," Menendez told The Hill.

COMMENT:  Good.  Congress must be involved, for the operative principle in Obama's policy toward Iran is appeasement.

Of course, Obama could veto any new legislation, but that could prove very unpopular with the American people, if recent polls are to be believed.  It was sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table in the first place.  Sanctions are hurting the Iranian economy.

If Iran broke off talks because new sanctions are being imposed, then they couldn't have been very serious about negotiations in the first place.

December 3, 2014