Weakness: Under Iranian Pressure, US Backs Away From New Sanctions Over Illegal Missile Tests

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The White House has delayed its plan to impose new financial sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program, according to U.S. officials, amid growing tensions with Iran over the nuclear deal struck earlier this year. The officials said the Obama administration remains committed to combating Iran’s missile program and that sanctions being developed by the U.S. Treasury Department remain on the table. They also said imposing such penalties was legal under the landmark nuclear agreement forged between global powers and Iran in July. U.S. officials offered no definitive timeline for when the sanctions would be imposed after the decision was made Wednesday to delay them.

Top congressional lawmakers slammed the delay, arguing that such moves would undermine the US ability to implement the July 14 2015, nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “I believe in the power of vigorous enforcement that pushes back on Iran’s bad behavior,” Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said Friday. “If we don’t do that, we invite Iran to cheat.”

Coons was a supporter of the nuclear agreement who joined Harry Reid's filibuster to deprive Congress of any ability to vote on the deal -- which may explain why he believes Iran needs an invitation to cheat. The regime habitually cheats.  That's a long-established fact, ignored only by the willfully blind.  House Speaker Paul Ryan calls the administration's delay "a fitting end to a year of disastrous foreign policy decisions."  Presidential candidate Marco Rubio has written a column in National Review forcefully rebuking Obama for allowing Iran to "push around" the United States.  And Sen. Pat Toomey and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge teamed up to pen an op/ed meticulously outlining Iran's myriad affronts and violations since the nuclear deal was agreed upon and calling on the administration to keep all Iran sanctions in place.  After laying out a series of damning bullet points, they conclude:

It is long past time for the president to acknowledge the obvious: Iran is in serial violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions mandated by the JCPOA itself. These violations threaten our national security interests and those of our allies. The Iranian regime has lied to U.S. and Western negotiators for years, including throughout the JCPOA negotiations, and demonstrated no softening of its hostility toward the United States. In fact, the regime continues to arrest and convict American citizens on fabricated political charges. Most importantly, there is no real agreement — no meeting of the minds and no legally binding document. For the president to ignore more than 35 years of reality — dating back to the hostage crisis in 1979 right up to the Iranian arrogance of the past several months — and prepare to lift the sanctions is worse than foolish; it is extremely dangerous. Iran has repeatedly abandoned its political commitments. Why should we consider its actions to be anything other than in bad faith? We urge the president to reconsider the path he is on, before it is too late. He should not surrender to the fear of losing a so-called political legacy and must maintain the sanctions on Iran.