Wednesday Iran Talking Points

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for January 26th, 2011:

The Washington Times: American Enterprise Institute fellow and former UN ambassador John Bolton denounces the EU and White House’s commitment to P5+1 negotiations with Iran, writing, “There is not, and has not been from the outset of these tortuous negotiations, even the slightest chance Iran will renounce its 20-year goal of deliverable nuclear weapons.” Bolton goes on to argue, “…the Tehran regime has systematically used the talks to buy time to overcome the many scientific and technological obstacles to achieving its objective.”

The Washington Post: Jennifer Rubin, writing on her Right Turn blog, opines on the retirement of Stuart Levey from his position as Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Rubin uses this event as an opportunity to review the state of Iran sanctions, writing, “One sanctions expert reminds me that sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran have still not been issued, and no foreign, non-Iranian bank has been sanctioned for its involvement with Iran.” Rubin concludes, “…[n]ow we see that sanctions critics were right all along. Even the best sanctions efforts innovatively implemented have failed to meet our objectives. We need to change the regime, not the rulers’ hearts and minds.”