| Washington Post | - |
It
was curious timing for the State Department to issue a travel warning.
On Wednesday just after President Obama delivered an impassioned,
detailed and hard-hitting speech to shore up support for the Iran nukes
deal to be voted on in Congress in ...
President Obama speaks at American University on the Iran nuclear deal Wednesday. (Pete Marovich/Bloomberg)
On Wednesday just after President Obama delivered an impassioned, detailed and hard-hitting speech to shore up support for the Iran nukes deal to be voted on in Congress in September, State reminded Americans that it is unsafe to visit there.
Obama said the agreement reached in Austria in July “certainly doesn’t resolve all our problems with Iran. It does not ensure a warming between our two countries.”
But Obama noted that “just because Iranian hardliners chant ‘Death to America’ does not mean that that’s what all Iranians believe.”
Maybe not, but State in a travel warning said ominously: “Some elements in Iran remain hostile to the United States. As a result, U.S. citizens may be subject to harassment or arrest while traveling or residing in Iran.”
What’s more, since there’s no U.S. embassy, travelers better “make their own plans in the event of an emergency.” (Such as a Kafkaesque arrest?) State’s ability to help “in the event of an emergency is extremely limited.”
No word on how you tell a “hardliner” apart from the other folks.
Al Kamen, an award-winning columnist on the national staff of The Washington Post, created the “In the Loop” column in 1993.
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