BBC Correspondent Kim Ghattas said that President Obama is hoping for an Iran deal because “he wants something to hold up, a piece of paper to hold up as his legacy on foreign policy” on Saturday’s “Up with Steve Kornacki” on MSNBC.
Ghattas criticized House Speaker John Boehner’s trip to Israel, saying that Boehner would probably not be visiting Israel if Netanyahu had lost, “the idea that politics stops at water’s edge that is really gone. Certainly when you’re looking at the relationship between Israel and the United States, and certainly when you’re looking at the Iran deal.”
She continued, “this administration, this president, he wants something to hold up, a piece of paper to hold up as his legacy on foreign policy. Mr. Kerry and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, had perhaps hoped it could be a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. That is clearly not going to happen anymore, and so Mr. Obama is very much hoping that despite the re-election of Mr. Netanyahu, despite the complications that this means for his negotiations, despite the acrimony also with Republicans here, he can drive this through, this negotiation and bring it to the finish line. And that’s why he appealed directly to the people of Iran in his Noruz message, the Iranian new year, to say this is a chance of a lifetime.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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