International Relations Seminar
Laura Weiderhaft
Newspaper Analysis 4
October 14, 2011
“Obama Vows to Punish Iran in Alleged Plot Against Envoy” Helene Cooper The New York Times Friday, October 14, 2011
On Thursday, October 13, 2011, President Barack Obama spoke at a news conference in the White House about an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Obama’s remarks were both a condemnation of the Iranian government for its apparent role in the planned attack and a call to the international community to punish the Iranian government for its actions. The President’s remarks about this attempted assassination reflect the nature of the international community and the standards of conduct to which states who wish to participate in the international community are held. While the United States condemns the alleged involvement of the Iranian government in the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, the U.S. has little power to take any unilateral action against Iran because the United States’ desired economic sanctions on Iran would require economic ties with Iran that the U.S. does not have. The lack of leverage that the United States has in this situation indicates that the influence a state has over other states and in the international community as a whole is determined by its economic relationships to a greater degree than its military strength. The United States must collect international support in order to apply the sanctions that it wishes to place on Iran. The fact that the United States needs the cooperation of multiple states to impose the desired sanctions on Iran suggests that there is an organized global community that upholds the standards by which states interact with one another and that these standards are enforced largely by the global community and not single states acting unilaterally. Obama’s approach to the situation will be to “mobilize the international community to make sure that Iran is further and further isolated.” Isolation from the international
community, according to Obama is a serious punishment for any state to undergo, emphasizing the importance of remaining in good standing with the global community and adhering to the standards to which interactions in the global community are held. With support from the international community, the United States condemnation of the Iranian government can be much more severe. Although the accusations against Iran are allegedly backed by solid evidence, the United States has plenty of reason to want further isolation of Iran from the global community besides the actions taken by the Iranian government in this assassination plot. The relationship between the leadership of Iran and the leadership of the United States is already tense, and the United States has already been pressuring its allies to impose sanctions on Iran for their nuclear ambitions. Because of the nature of the international environment, the United States has been unable to punish Iran for its nuclear developments alone. If the international community responds more strongly to the assassination plot accusations than it did to the nuclear developments, then Iran could see sanctions imposed by the collective authority of the global community and the United States could see a resolution to its complaints against Iran. Â