Barack Obama – who often has boasted of his world travels and life in Indonesia as a child – understands what America looks like from the outside, and that's why he's engaged in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
That's according to Thomas L. Friedman, the internationally known author, reporter and columnist.
Freidman has won three Pulitzer Prizes and has written multiple bestselling books, including "The World is Flat." He started with the New York Times in 1981 and the next year moved to Beirut then to Jerusalem in 1984, covering the Middle East.
Moving back to Washington in 1989, he covered Secretary of State James A. Baker III and later domestic policy, and eventually foreign affairs.
Friedman was being interviewed by former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough on his MSNBC "Morning Show" on the topic of Obama and Iran.
"Obama's someone who's lived abroad maybe more than any president in a long time, and because of that he actually knows what American looks like from the outside in," he told Scarborough.
"And he can actually see America even to some point from the Iranian perspective. It comes through when he says 'let's remember, we, the United States, back in the 1950s, we toppled Iran's democratically elected government. There might be some reason that these people actually want to get a weapon that will deter that from happening again.'"
Scarborough had an immediate question.
"But Tom, is it possible, is it an admirable quality for us to have a president who can look at the world through the eyes of a regime that you and I both know has been the epicenter of terrorism since 1979?"
Friedman responded: "It really depends on what you're talking about Joe. You know, I think it really depends on what you think of this deal, because Iran is a very complex entity, and I think that's something else that Obama believes that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn't."
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Friedman said Obama's view "is that, if you talk to Netanyahu about Israel politics, he'll say, 'We have politics in Israel We have politics. My hands are tied. I'd love to do something with you on the Palestinians, but my hands are tied. We have politics. If I don't have a kosher kitchen in the basement of the Ministry of Interior by 5 o'clock today they're going to take down my government.'"
"But when it comes to Iran," Friedman said, "Netanyahu's view is that there is no politics in Iran. Eighty-five million Iranians want to get a bomb to drop on Jews the next day. And I think one of the differences between them, is that Obama believes there's some really bad actors in Iran and he believes there's a lot of people that oppose them internally, and he's trying to construct a deal that will play with that chemistry in a way that will tip in favor of more engagement in the world."
He described Obama as being able to "actually walk in another man's shoes."
Friedman interviewed Obama recently, prompting the JNS.org news service to accuse "the ever-sycophantic Friedman" of "shamelessly" shilling for Obama.
Abraham Miller wrote: "This is the president who helped the Muslim Brotherhood come to power in Egypt. This is the president who sought to put the Muslim Brotherhood back into power after the Egyptian military had the good sense to overthrow the fanatics bent on creating a Shariah-compliant tyranny. This is the president who overthrew Moammar Gadhafi and flung Libya into chaos, paving the way for the Islamic State to become a political force there. This is the president whose 'red lines' in Syria were repeatedly crossed without consequence, and whose politics were were most aptly described as the zig followed by the zag."
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WND reported the recently announced "deal" between Western powers was touted as a triumph for Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, But the Jerusalem Post reported Iranian President Hassan Rouhani confirmed that any final deal must provide that sanctions be lifted immediately.
"We will not sign any deal unless all sanctions are lifted on the same day. … We want a win-win deal for all parties involved in the nuclear talks," he said.
Obama spokesman Josh Earnest, however, insisted the U.S. would not budge from its position that such sanctions relief had to be phased in as an incentive for Iran to comply.
"You can't start talking about relieving sanctions until we've reached agreement about how we're going to shut down every pathway they have to a nuclear weapon," he said.
The BBC reported Iran is to cut its stash of enriched uranium, which could be used in a bomb.
In return, international sanctions against Iran gradually go away.
WND reported recently a former member of Congress believes Obama's work with Iran is a harbinger of World War III.
"This literally is the worst part of the Obama presidency," said former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in a radio interview with "Florida Live" host Dan Maduri. "This puts Iran in a position where they would have the firepower to be able to take out not only Israel, but they would have the firepower to use intercontinental ballistic missiles against the United States with nuclear-tipped warheads."
She continued: "This [deal] virtually guarantees, in my opinion, a World War III. I think that alone would qualify Barack Obama for being the worst president that the United States has ever had to endure."
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