The evening before the announcement of yet another missed deadline and months-long extension in the Iran nuclear negotiations, likely Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina predicted that “I wouldn't be at all surprised if tomorrow the announcement is, 'Well, we're gonna have another extension.'”
Sure enough, the next day Secretary of State John Kerry and negotiators for other major powers agreed to push passed a March 31 deadline, looking to late June for a detailed agreement with Iran.
“There are certain things that are common about all deal-making,” said the woman who merged HP and Compaq into the world's largest personal computer manufacturer. “And one of the principles of making a good deal is you have to be willing to walk away.
“This administration has demonstrated it's never going to walk away, so of course the Iranians are going to keep rolling this thing back.”
Referring to Tehran's last-minute refusal to agree to a 10-year moratorium or to sending nuclear fuel out to Russia, Fiorina said, “they're backing off on a whole set of things. Never have they agreed to a robust inspections regime. So why should we believe they're going to agree now?
“I think what we should be doing now is walking away, insisting that Iran meet the U.N. resolutions around an inspection regime, which they've never been willing to do, and immediately enact the most punishing sanctions we can, with or without anyone else.”
Unlike another prominent Republican mulling a presidential run, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Fiorina opposed military action against Iran “until we have exhausted the possibilities that we so far have refused to contemplate,” and departed from the present policy of reacting “passively to every sign of aggression by Iran to extend deadlines every time we can't come up with an agreement … and basically to withdraw from the world other than at the negotiating table in Geneva.”
Turning to the crisis in Yemen, where an Iranian proxy recently instigated a coup that Saudi Arabia has intervened against, Fiorina said, “the most shocking thing to me about the events of the last several days in Yemen has been that Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally, did not inform us of their action other than 30 minutes before they went in. What that says is they no longer trust us. That is not how they would have behaved five or six years ago.”
Fiorina swiftly segued to her misgivings about Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, with whom she has dealt as a corporate leader, decrying “that Russia has an equal seat at this table, because Russia's clearly an adversary – clearly an adversary.”
Fiorina, who says she is likely to announce her entry into the 2016 Republican Presidential race in late April, was speaking to New York conservatives at a dinner hosted by businessman John Catsimatidis and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, established by Heritage Foundation economist Steve Moore and his fellow supply-side champions Larry Kudlow and Arthur Laffer.
Fiorina, who lost a 2010 bid for Barbara Boxer's California U.S. Senate seat, wasted little time brandishing her foreign policy credentials.
“Of course we can lead in the world again, and the world is desperate for our leadership,” she said. “I have more experience in the world and with foreign leaders than anyone else running, with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton. And unlike her, I've actually cut deals with these people.
“Having sat across the table from Vladimir Putin, I know a red reset button isn't gonna work. I don't care if it's the Saudis, the Germans, the Chinese – they are all asking for our leadership. The world is unstable when we are not leading.”
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