Biden Makes Case for Sanctions on Iran

WSJ

ISTANBUL—U.S. Vice President Joe Biden made the case for sanctions against Iran in a meeting on Saturday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The vice president didn't ask Turkey to join the U.S. and others in sanctioning Iran, a senior Obama administration official said.

"The vice president further made the case that we needed to sustain the pressure on Iran, and that this was the most likely way we would have to actually modify their behavior," a senior administration official said after the meeting. Mr. Biden "noted that, clearly, the sanctions were having a demonstrable impact on Iran," because Iranian influence is declining, the official said.

Mr. Biden spent two hours with Mr. Erdogan inside the prime minister's private home, where the two men sat in their slippers and discussed foreign affairs.

Earlier Saturday, during a summit designed to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Arab nations, Mr. Biden publicly praised the Turkish government for aligning with the U.S. in calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. He pressed upon Mr. Erdogan that there is growing international consensus around the U.S. and Turkish positions that Mr. Assad needs to relinquish power, the senior administration official said. But the two men didn't discuss what comes next regarding Syria, according to the official.

Mr. Biden, who arrived in Turkey on Friday for a three-day visit, also welcomed the United Nations Human Rights Council's condemnation earlier this week of the Assad regime.

"We stand with Turkey and a growing chorus of nations in calling for President Assad to step aside," Mr. Biden said.

The meeting with Mr. Erdogan was unusual for its intimacy. The prime minister rarely hosts people at his private home, but he has been recovering from minor surgery. Mr. Erdogan hasn't been seen in public since he underwent the procedure.

Mr. Biden brought three U.S. officials with him to visit the prime minister. Mr. Erdogan greeted the men at the door and introduced them to his son, daughter and son-in-law, the senior administration official said. Later, after a meeting that was scheduled for 45 minutes had run for two hours, Mr. Erdogan walked Mr. Biden out to the driveway.

The prime minister "seemed fine," said the senior administration official. "He looked very well."

Turkey has become an increasingly important U.S. ally on a host of foreign-policy issues, in particular on policy regarding Iran and Syria. Mr. Biden flew to Istanbul after spending two days in Iraq. He represented the U.S. at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Istanbul, the second such gathering of an initiative started by President Barack Obama.

The summit put a spotlight on the intersection of the Arab Spring and the debt crisis in Europe, an unexpected turn that prompted a pointed public exchange between Mr. Biden and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan.

Mr. Babacan, who spoke before Mr. Biden, laced into European leaders over the euro-zone debt crisis, saying their egos and lack of political gumption were getting in the way of solving the crisis. "If they had a strong government like we have in Turkey, they would be able to solve their problem," Mr. Babacan said. In a dig at the West, he said: "The fast fish eats the small fish, not the big fish."

The comments prompted Mr. Biden to rework the top of his speech as he sat his seat in the front row of the auditorium listening Mr. Babacan.

"I'm not going to spend any time talking to you about the U.S. economy, but I am going to suggest that we, all nations, are in this together," Mr. Biden began. "The fact that our economy is three times as large as the next-largest economy and larger than the next four combined does not make us immune to what's happening around the world."

Mr. Biden later praised Turkey's recent economic success. But at the same time, he warned countries in the region that their prosperity in part depends on how much they bring women into the fold and open up the Internet.

"Countries that try to have it both ways—for example making the Internet closed to free expression but open for business—those countries will find that that approach is a dead end," Mr. Biden said.

The next summit will be held in the United Arab Emirates in 2012, organizers said. "I plan on being there," Mr. Biden told the audience, "assuming I'm re-elected."