Come Back, Obama

If sanctions against Iran were effective, the U.N. Security Council would not need to apply a fourth round of reprimands against the Middle Eastern country. Sounds like a confession of failure from the U.N.

The new sanctions work as a way of satisfying the United States’ domestic audience. Once again, Barack Obama gave in to the conservatives. In international context, the decision made by the USA is just one more step of an old Washington policy that does not show positive results.

Twelve members out of 15 on the U.N. Security Council voted for the sanctions: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Austria, Japan, Nigeria, Bosnia, Uganda, Mexico and Gabon. There was one abstention from Lebanon. Brazil and Turkey opposed.

On the scoreboard, Brazil lost. Politically, it won.

The episode shows the need for reform in the U.N. The week the U.N. saw Israel refusing the request for an international investigation into the disproportionate attack on a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza; its Security Council has approved sanctions that will strengthen Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the regime of the Ayatollahs. American pride and blindness are brothers of the fundamentalism and the disrespect regarding human rights in Iran.

Ahmadinejad gave a speech to victimize himself in the realm of international public opinion and to obtain some internal cohesion regarding his nuclear intentions. Obama may have won one more victory for the conservatives. Brazil tried to articulate a different way. Somewhat naïve? Maybe. But they tried.

If the fourth round of sanctions should fail, which seems to be the case, will the fifth and the sixth be forthcoming? Or will the U.S. engage in a third simultaneous war? Everything points to a different direction.

Hopefully Obama is buying time and argument to obtain a second mandate. Maybe someday he will come back.