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Mike Pompeo ‘gotchas’ RT by revealing his nonsensical Iran quote is ACTUALLY by OBAMA – but what difference does it make? Nothing better to do, Mike? Pompeo ‘gotchas’ RT by revealing his nonsensical Iran quote is ACTUALLY by OBAMA
(about 5 hours later)
Attributing a statement to President Barack Obama doesn’t make it any less nonsensical, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ought well to know. Nor should one mistake the sentiments of people quoted in a story with those of RT. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apparently thought that ‘revealing’ a nonsensical quote he posted about Iran sanctions was actually authored by President Barack Obama somehow invalidated RT’s coverage of reactions to it.
RT.com “got it wrong again,” Pompeo tweeted on Tuesday, saying that it was President Barack Obama who made a statement we attributed to him. “He told Congress, rightly, that the US could snapback sanctions on Iran anytime and no country could block it. It is still true now. I’ll wait for your correction.”RT.com “got it wrong again,” Pompeo tweeted on Tuesday, saying that it was President Barack Obama who made a statement we attributed to him. “He told Congress, rightly, that the US could snapback sanctions on Iran anytime and no country could block it. It is still true now. I’ll wait for your correction.”
Pompeo could have just saved everyone the trouble by not posting the quote without attribution to Obama the first time around, making it appear as if the statement had been his own. His self-correction is certainly appreciated in that regard.
Which would be fair if Pompeo had included the same screenshot in his Monday tweet, instead of committing plagiarism by leaving the attribution off. His self-correction is certainly appreciated in that regard.
That said, it changes nothing about the substance of the RT story in question, which quoted  journalists, pundits and academics calling out Pompeo for the claim that the US can impose “multilateral” sanctions on Iran by itself. 
Pompeo’s argument, paraphrasing Obama, that the US can “snapback sanctions on Iran anytime and no country could block it” is a straw man. Neither RT nor anyone quoted in the story has argued that any country can block the US from imposing its own sanctions against Tehran.  That said, it changes nothing about the RT story he is referring to, as it cites journalists, pundits and academics who called out the notion that the US can unilaterally impose multilateral sanctions. That’s not possible by definition, no matter how many word games one attempts to play. 
Whether it originated with Obama or with Pompeo – as his original tweet suggested – makes no difference; the claim in the quote remains nonsensical. “Multilateral” sanctions cannot be imposed unilaterally, by definition, no matter how many word games one attempts to play. The people quoted do address Pompeo in less than flattering terms, but again, that could have been easily avoided had he just posted the original quote properly in the first place. Instead, he chose to call out RT and score some cheap points in a manner a diplomat ought to consider undignified.
One might argue that the US could demand the other signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA) join Washington in reimposing the sanctions. Except the US has no standing to do so, as the Trump administration unilaterally exited the JCPOA in 2018, making such a discussion purely academic.  While 'Got you, it was OBAMA who said/did this!' may well be a response that works on US mainstream media, in this case it does nothing to address the substance of the criticism. 
Diplomacy isn’t like driving a tank. One can’t just pop smoke and smash through an obstacle, tempting as that may be. While it may seem frustrating that what we’ve got here is a failure to communicate, the fact that Pompeo and his staff at Foggy Bottom pay attention to RT reporting leaves open some hope for greater understanding in the future.Diplomacy isn’t like driving a tank. One can’t just pop smoke and smash through an obstacle, tempting as that may be. While it may seem frustrating that what we’ve got here is a failure to communicate, the fact that Pompeo and his staff at Foggy Bottom pay attention to RT reporting leaves open some hope for greater understanding in the future.
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