Clinton appears to have concluded it was a bad idea for the State Department to have boasted that sanctions were pummeling the Iranian currency. The United States had insisted in the past that it did not want to hurt ordinary Iranians and was aiming sanctions at the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
But last week, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was almost boastful in placing credit for the rial’s collapse on sanctions. “From our perspective, this [rial collapse] speaks to the unrelenting and increasingly successful international pressure that we are all bringing to bear on the Iranian economy.”
Nuland did not even mention ineptitude in the Iranian economy as a factor in the rial’s plunge.
But Clinton did. The very day after Nuland spoke out, Clinton completely reversed everything Nuland had said.
“I think the Iranian government deserves responsibility for what is going on inside Iran,” she said. “They have made their own government decisions, having nothing to do with the sanctions, that have had an impact on the economic conditions inside the country….
“Of course, the sanctions have had an impact as well, but those could be remedied in short order if the Iranian government were willing to work with … the rest of the international community in a sincere manner.”