ADL Rips Obama Admin. Over Iran Deal, Leaks, Calls for New Sanctions

Algemeiner Staff

ADL Iran Anti-Defamation League Iran Foxman Iran nuclear talks Iran Obama Iran Obama Mideast Sanctions Iran

ADL National Director Abraham Foxman. Photo: Justin Hoch.

Jewish human rights group, the Anti-Defamation League, sharply criticized the Obama administration on Monday over its support of the tentative deal under discussion in nuclear talks between Iran and world powers. The ADL also slammed “the U.S. government’s leaking of information about Israel’s defensive military actions in the area,” and John Kerry’s recent  “moral preaching to the Israelis on the Israeli-Palestinian issue,” as “counterproductive.”

Additionally, barely two weeks after agreeing to a “time out” on lobbying for further Iran sanctions, after being requested to do so by the White House, the ADL called for new sanctions on Iran to be implemented. The request for the suspension of lobbying activities came at a hurriedly arranged meeting at the White House between Jewish leaders and administration officials on October 29th.
“I wanted to give the Obama Administration a chance to demonstrate that they could make real progress on this issue,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL’s national director.


Now, Foxman says, after having reviewed “some of the points of the tentative agreement to be acted upon November 20 in Geneva,” he has changed his mind.
“We no longer have the luxury or the option to refrain from enacting additional sanctions against Iran,” Foxman said.
“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,” he said.
“Both the U.S. and Israel need each other at this pivotal moment, but do not seem to trust each other,” Foxman added.
His position reflects that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who described the deal under discussion in the nuclear talks as “very bad.”
On Sunday, in interviews with The Algemeiner, other top Jewish leaders including Malcolm Hoenlein, Daniel Mariaschin, Abraham Cooper and Alan Dershowitz also expressed disappointment over the Obama administration’s Mideast policy.