President Obama sought to cover his right flank as he suggested he could take a more confrontational approach in two global hotspots where trigger-happy legislators with an increasingly attentive audience accuse him of demonstrating weakness.
Obama said on Monday that he is still open to sending arms to the Ukrainian government to assist in Kiev’s fight against Russian-backed separatists, and intoned that nuclear negotiations between Iran and the permanent UN Security Council members could fail if they don’t result in an agreement next month.
He made the remarks in the afternoon during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel who last week visited Ukrainian and Russian leaders in a bid to bring a diplomatic end to the conflict in Ukraine.
The President said that it was still his hope that the fighting there would conclude as a result of negotiations, but added that he is preparing for their imminent collapse.
“If, in fact, diplomacy fails, I have asked my team to look at all options,” he said. “The possibility of lethal defensive weapons is one of those options that’s being examined.”
Obama stressed that he hasn’t yet made a decision about sending armaments to Kiev and that he is negotiating with Merkel and other European leaders about a policy of lethal assistance. Merkel said last weekend, however, that the shipment of arms “will not lead to the progress Ukraine needs.”
President Obama also said that “the prospect of a military solution to this problem has always been low,” and that military help would not be predicated on the notion of Ukraine defeating Russian-backed separatists, but rather on helping Kiev inflict a heavier cost on rebels.
“It’s clear that they violated just about every commitment they made in the Minsk agreement,” Obama claimed about the insurgents and their supporters in Moscow. He said the militants have been expanding territory under their control, and have “shelled civilian areas”–an accusation that independent observers have also leveled at Ukrainian government forces.
The Minsk agreement, a ceasefire signed by combatants last September, was shattered in January. Both separatists and the Ukrainian military violated the terms of the deal dozens of times, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said.
On the Iranian issue, Obama said that he could not envision anything positive coming from drawing out the talks beyond the impending deadline.
“I don’t see a further extension being useful if they have not agreed to the basic formulation and the bottom line that the world requires to have confidence that they are not pursuing a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“Now, if the framework for a deal is done–if people have a clear sense of what is required, and there’s some drafting and T’s to cross and I’s to dot–that’s a different issue,” he added. “But my view, and I’ve presented this to members of Congress, is that we now know enough that the issues are no longer technical. The issues, now, are does Iran have the political will and the desire to get a deal done.”
The President then hailed the united front put up by the coalition comprised of the permanent members of the Security Council, “which, I should acknowledge, includes Russia,” he said.
He concluded by warning that the alternatives to a diplomatic resolution “are narrow, and they’re not attractive.”
The statements did not, however, mollify the President’s critics on Capitol Hill, whose influence—at least on the Ukraine issue–appears to be growing.
“’What’s the rush,’ Mr. President?” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted, riffing on a rhetorical question posed by the President during the press briefing. “The rush is the prospect of a nuclear Iran is the single greatest national security threat facing the US.”
“The rush is that Iran has had more than a year of relaxed sanctions to pursue a nuclear weapon. The rush is that every assumption your Administration has made so far, from ISIS to Russia, has been wrong,” he added, in two other tweets, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“The Ukrainian people do not have time for President Obama’s ‘strategic patience,’” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) remarked on the same social network. “This latest episode once again shows that under President Obama’s leadership it is better to be America’s enemy than her friend,” he added.
In a statement, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) aimed criticism at both Obama and Merkel, saying that the pair of leaders are “offering a ‘more of the same’ diplomatic strategy that is doomed to fail.”
The legislative grumbles came as Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced the formation of a Senate Ukraine Caucus–a body whose mission and membership indicates that President Obama will soon face more pressure from liberal lawmakers to send heavy weaponry to Ukraine.
“In the face of continued Russian aggression in the region and repeated assaults on the sovereignty of its borders, Ukraine needs a steadfast ally in the United States,” Durbin said. “This bipartisan group sends a clear message that Ukraine has the unflinching support of the Ukrainian community in Illinois and in the United States Senate.”
Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) will assume the role of vice-chairs of the caucus. Its aim, per the statement issued by Portman’s office, is “to strengthen the political, military, economic, and cultural relationship between the United States and Ukraine.”
