Obama clueless on Iran once again

The Anti-Defamation League condemned it. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) denounced it. And the Obama administration hasn’t heard of it. But then why should the administration bother itself with what the ADL called “an international assortment of Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites” gathered in Tehran? That would fly in the face of the current initiative to ingratiate ourselves with the mullahs, stave off any messy confrontation over sponsorship of terror and gross human rights violations and, of course, work out a sweetheart deal that allows the administration, umbrella gripped tightly, to declare that it has delivered peace in our time.

In its statement the ADL explained:

The New Horizon Conference is part of the Tehran’s 13th International Resistance Film Festival.

Last year, the conference’s cancellation was attributed to the “more moderate” tone of the new government of President Hassan Rouhani.

“This conference provides yet another example of how the Iranian government facilitates the spread of global anti-Semitism,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

He added : “Participation by an international assortment of Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites is de rigueur for these types of events. A disturbing new element in this anti-Jewish gathering is the appearance on the guest list of a few high visibility U.S. antiwar and anti-Israel activists who claim their positions are not motivated by anti-Semitism. It will be harder for them to make that claim now, given their open collusion with this event and its Iranian government sponsors.”

The Tehran conference materials claim the meeting is devoted to focusing on a range of topics, including “Similarities between Nazism and Zionism, America and the Zionist crimes in the world, Hollywood and the Israel lobby….”

The most alarming aspect of the conference this year was the presence of former Iranian nuclear negotiators Saeed Jalili and Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as Kirk highlighted: “The so-called ‘New Horizon’ conference in Tehran proves why the current Iranian regime under President Hassan Rouhani is, at its core, no less extremist and dangerous than the regime under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The conference’s participants promoted anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, and were even greeted on day one by high-ranking Iranian cleric Mohsen Ghomi, a close advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who falsely alleged that ‘American officials are puppets of the Zionist lobby.’” He explained, “It’s critical that U.S. Administration officials, who are desperately offering ever more dangerous nuclear concessions to get Iran to accept a watered-down nuclear deal, open their eyes to the true nature of the current Iranian regime.”

Asked about this confab and what it might mean for the administration’s quest to reach a detente of sorts with Tehran, the State Department spokeswoman at Thursday’s daily briefing pleaded: “I have not seen reports of this conference. Where is the conference?”

That really does sum up the administration’s cluelessness: What is this outpouring of genocidal venom from a regime masquerading as a normal nation state that you speak of? The administration does not bother to keep abreast of such developments, let alone condemn them, because it is on a mission. Mere facts would become a distraction. It must continue to insist Iran is a nation like all others, rational and desirous of harmonious relations with the West.

For if it really was a fanatical Islamist regime bent on perpetrating a web of lies, destroying Israel and achieving the means to do so, then a half-baked scheme, say, to unplug and not destroy centrifuges, would be ludicrous and those promoting it would be taken as fools. So walk along. Nothing to see here.

The Washington Post