Bombs and Dollars – American Foreign Policy Blog – China, Afghanistan, Pakistan

The Washington Post is reporting that Barack Obama has secured China’s support in the writing of a “toughly worded, U.S.-backed statement criticizing the Islamic republic.”

According to the Post, the Administration told China that Israel viewed Iran as an “existential issue” and that they could bomb Iran if action isn’t taken, and that would lead to an oil crisis.

Ironically, one of the reasons Obama has so much credibility on suggesting that Israel might attack Iran is because of Obama’s failures to find support with Israel. He has constantly been trying to discourage Israel from attacking, but with his approval rating only at 6% in Israel, he’s not finding much support.

While Obama has been talking about negotiating with Tehran have made no progress. Even in November, he was still trying to get the process started. Yesterday, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohammad El Baradei told the IAEA that he had made no progress securing investigations with Iran and that Iran’s failure to cooperate had caused the process to hit a “dead end”.

Aside from his failures to secure anything with Iran (and we are hoping a “toughly worded” letter can help, because Israeli threats haven’t…), Obama’s policy towards Israel itself certainly isn’t helping.

His constant criticisms of Israel’s settlements have prompted his low approval rating there, with 60% of Israelis saying they don’t trust him.

In this distrust of Obama, at least he can use it to stir Chinese oil fears…