January 22-2016
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says the release of Americans held prisoner by Iran provided “one good day over 36 years” of generally bleak relations.
She said she hoped Iran-American relations would improve in general, but she made clear she didn’t see that on the horizon.
Clinton was speaking in the latest Democratic presidential candidate debate Sunday, during which her chief opponent, Sen. Bernard Sanders, argued the United States should upgrade US relations with Iran, though he said he would not advocate going as far as relations on the ambassadorial level
Clinton strongly supported the nuclear deal with Iran, but, like Obama, said she still regarded Iran as hostile and not meriting normal relations.
“They have been, so far, following their requirements under the [nuclear] agreement,” she said. “But I think we still have to carefully watch them.
“We’ve had one good day over 36 years, and I think we need more good days before we move more rapidly toward any kind of normalization. And we have to be sure that they are truly going to implement the agreement. And, then, we have to go after them on a lot of their other bad behavior in the region, which is causing enormous problems in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and elsewhere.”
Sanders, however, advocated normalization right away: “I think what we’ve got to do is move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran.”
But he didn’t paint Iran as an honorable member of the world community. “Iran’s behavior in so many ways is something that we disagree with—their support for terrorism, the anti-American rhetoric that we’re hearing from their leadership is something that is not acceptable,” Sanders said.
“On the other hand, the fact is that we’ve managed to reach an agreement, something that I’ve very strongly supported, that prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and we did that without going to war,” he said.
He said he hoped the relationship would become more positive but would stop short of exchanging ambassadors. “I think the goal has got to be as we’ve done with Cuba, to move in warm relations with a very powerful and important country in this world,” he said.
