Follow us on social

Code-pink-2

'Angry' protesters show up at Sen. Bob Menendez's house

Code Pink says the chair of the foreign relations committee is hindering, not helping get the U.S. back into Iran nuclear deal.

Analysis | Middle East

Antiwar protesters demonstrated Saturday outside the suburban New Jersey home of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez (D–N.J.) over his opposition to diplomacy with Iran.

The protest was led by Codepink and Peace Action NJ. About two dozen people marched to the house in the upscale suburb of Englewood Cliffs where Menendez’s third wife lives and the senator spends much of the year.

The demonstrators also set up a haft sin — a table spread Iranians traditionally put out for the beginning of spring — outside the house and left a letter at the front door.

“We’re actually hopeful right now that there can be a deal made, because of the meeting that’s happening on Tuesday in Vienna,” Codepink co-founder Medea Benjamin told Responsible Statecraft. “But so much of it depends on Menendez and his cadre to not muck it up. And he’s done so much already to stop the United States from rejoining the deal, and it’s made us very angry.” 

Iran and the United States have agreed to begin indirect talks in Austria over rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal, a stated goal of the Biden administration. The deal, which the Trump administration had broken from in 2018, placed strict restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for six world powers ending their economic embargo on Iran.

Menendez had opposed the deal when it was first negotiated, and recently led a petition alongside Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) pushing the Biden administration to take a tough line on Iran. The petition, backed by the hawkish American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was seen by pro-diplomacy advocates as an effort to derail a return to the deal.

Menendez and Graham’s letter stated that its signatories have “differing views on the [2015 deal] and the overall approach of the Trump Administration’s maximum pressure campaign,” and calls on the administration to “use the full force of our diplomatic and economic tools” to pressure Iran on its regional policies and conventional missile program.

“They pretend that they’re in line with the Biden administration, but they’re not in line with the Biden administration,” said Benjamin, who called on Menendez to publicly commit to supporting the talks with Iran.

Iranian-American human rights activist Manijeh Saba said she joined the protest because Menendez “has supported every war” and “the Iranian people are suffering so much” under U.S. economic sanctions.

“I’m not doing this because I support the Iranian government,” she added. “I’ve never supported the Iranian government. They actually threw me in jail, took my passport away for six years.”

Twenty-year Air Force veteran Ed Dugan, who has had numerous members of his family serve in the U.S. military, also spoke about the American people’s interest in diplomacy with Iran. 

“My biggest reason — I brought with me — is my eleven year old son,” he said in a speech. “I don’t want to still be at war when he gets old enough for military service.”

Code Pink outside the home of Senator Bob Menendez in suburban New Jersey Saturday April 2. (Matthew Petti)
Analysis | Middle East
Shutdown averted but Ukraine aid left behind

Shutdown averted but Ukraine aid left behind

QiOSK

House and Senate supporters of continuing Ukraine aid were seething yesterday but left little choice but to leave a vote for a new multi-billion dollar war package for another day.

After a spirited debate on the House floor Saturday, the chamber voted 335-91 for a "clean" stop gap measure without Ukraine aid that would continue funding the government for another 45 days. It then sent it along to the Senate, which had already passed its own bill, but with $6 billion in new funding for Kyiv.

keep readingShow less
Chris Murphy Ben Cardin

Photo Credit: viewimage and lev radin via shutterstock.com

Senate has two days to right Menendez’s wrongs on Egypt

QiOSK

UPDATE: On September 29, Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee urged a hold on the $235 million. Just before the deadline, newly minted Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin announced he would not allow the foreign military financing (FMF) to move forward, and would block future FMF and arms sales in the absence of "meaningful and sustainable" steps to better human rights in the country.


keep readingShow less
||
Diplomacy Watch: A peace summit without Russia
Diplomacy Watch: Laying the groundwork for a peace deal in Ukraine

Diplomacy Watch: Domestic politics continue to challenge Ukraine’s allies

QiOSK

Last week’s edition of Diplomacy Watch focused on how politics in Poland and Slovakia were threatening Western unity over Ukraine. A spat between Warsaw and Kyiv over grain imports led Polish President Andrzej Duda to compare Ukraine to a “drowning person … capable of pulling you down to the depths ,” while upcoming elections in Slovakia could bring to power a new leader who has pledged to halt weapons sales to Ukraine.

As Connor Echols wrote last week, “the West will soon face far greater challenges in maintaining unity on Ukraine than at any time since the war began.”

keep readingShow less

Ukraine War Crisis

Latest