(JNS.org) The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which previously said it would comply with the Obama Administration’s request of Jewish groups to halt their lobbying for new Iran sanctions while nuclear negotiations persist, changed its stance on the issue and called for additional sanctions.
ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement Monday that after the White House’s Oct. 29 meeting with Jewish leaders, he initially decided “to give the Obama Administration the benefit of the doubt in pursuing the diplomatic route and agreed to refrain from urging the Senate to impose additional sanctions for a short period of time to enable the U.S. to pursue diplomacy.”
But now, Foxman said he is “deeply troubled” by America’s reported offer of sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for the Islamic Republic suspending high-grade uranium enrichment (20 percent) for six months. Under the deal, Iran would still be able to enrich to 3.5 percent.
“I am now convinced that this agreement will not only prematurely roll back the sanctions regime, but that it would legitimize Iran as a threshold nuclear state. I believe we no longer have the luxury or the option to refrain from enacting additional sanctions against Iran,” Foxman said.
Late last month the U.S. representative to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the ADL at its centennial conference that the Obama administration was determined to be tough in talks with Iran. “No deal is better than a bad deal” on nuclear disarmament, said Power. “We will not accept a bad deal.”
