Romney is right. But Obama’s presidency has been all about legitimizing the illegitimate and delegitimizing the legitimate. This letter to the Ayatollah is of a piece with his Justice Department’s close and friendly relationship with the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and shunning of counter-jihadists.
“Mitt Romney hits President Obama on Iran letter,” by Lucy McCalmont, Politico, November 7, 2014:
Mitt Romney slammed President Barack Obama on Friday for reaching out to Iran in the fight against Islamic State militants, calling the president’s recent letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “astonishing” and “an enormous error.”
“I was frankly stunned that the president of the United States would write a letter of that nature and in effect, legitimize a nation and a leadership which is violating international norms and is threatening the world,” the 2012 Republican presidential candidate told the audience of the Israeli American Council’s inaugural national conference at the Washington Hilton.
“To suggest that we might somehow work together is something which is so far beyond the pale, I was speechless as I heard about it,” Romney said. “I simply can’t understand it.”
Romney’s comments follow news that Obama wrote a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader as the deadline for a nuclear deal at the end of month draws closer, the Associate Press reported Thursday.
However, while reports said the letter emphasized a shared interest in defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the administration would not confirm the letter and denied efforts of military cooperation with Iran.
“The United States will not cooperate militarily with Iran in that effort,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “We won’t share intelligence with them.”
Romney said the United States should treat Iran as it did South Africa, in which the country was considered a “pariah” and their leaders shunned from international bodies….