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Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-04/syria-isn-t-obama-s-litmus-test-on-iran.html
Syria Is not the Litmus Test of Obama on Iran
(Bloomberg) Jeffrey Goldberg - It would be a mistake to assume that just because the president is hesitant on Syria, he will be hesitant on Iran. Why? Because the president has defined the nuclear program of Iran as a core threat to U.S. national security. He has stated repeatedly that it is unacceptable for Iran to cross the nuclear threshold, and his administration has worked assiduously to sanction Iran in the most punishing of ways. In contrast, he has never argued that the continued existence of the Assad regime represents a dire threat to U.S. national security. Not all red lines are created equal. Not all national security challenges are equally dire. It is not analytically sound to assume that the hesitancy of Obama in one area equals hesitancy in another. It would be a mistake for the Iranian regime to believe that the president will not strike their nuclear facilities if he judges them to be near the nuclear threshold.