The now infamous ‘open mic’ moment between Barack Obama and then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev captured Obama talking about having “more flexibility” after being re-elected. The comments were made at a nuclear summit in Seoul, South Korea on March 26, 2012. Shortly before asking Medvedev for “flexibility”, Obama was overheard asking his Russian counterpart to relay a message to Vladimir Putin:

“On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this can be solved, but it’s important for him (Putin) to give me space.”

Here is the video for memory refreshment:

In reporting the incident, The New York Times implied the comment had to do with “…objections in Russia to the American plans for a missile defense system based in Europe.”

How about the other portion of the Obama quote, the part about “all these issues”? Did any of those issues involve the prospect of a nuclear Iran? Were there any discussions about a deal similar to the on that was signed last week? Iran and Russia are allies with Iran seen as perhaps the greatest potential nuclear threat to the the U.S. It’s hard to believe Iran didn’t come up in the talks.

Consider an article written by the Daily Beast’s Eli Lake earlier this month. In it, he makes the charge that the Obama administration had been “quietly lifting sanctions” on Iran for months prior to the deal that was ultimately struck on November 23rd:

The Obama administration began softening sanctions on Iran after the election of Iran’s new president in June, months before the current round of nuclear talks in Geneva or the historic phone call between the two leaders in September.

While those negotiations now appear on the verge of a breakthrough the key condition for Iran—relief from crippling sanctions—began quietly and modestly five months ago.

A review of Treasury Department notices reveals that the U.S. government has all but stopped the financial blacklisting of entities and people that help Iran evade international sanctions since the election of its president, Hassan Rouhani, in June.

At the World Tribune, Sol W. Sanders indicates that the behind-the-scenes negotiating between the Obama administration and Iran may have been taking place longer than that:

President Barrack Ohama’s special friend and adviser, Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, apparently, has been secretly creeping around the Persian Gulf for a year holding “unofficial” talks with the Persians, blind siding its allies including Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Of course, being that we’re in November, it’s been one year since the re-election of Barack Obama. Has Jarrett been working with Iranian leadership that long? After all, that’s when the ‘flexibility’ would reveal itself.

Jarrett: “Flexibility” to negotiate with Iran?

An article published by Fox News just two days after last year’s election focused on a proliferation of reports from “Iranian bloggers” that Jarrett had been “facilitating communication between the two adversaries”.

The reports suggest that Jarrett, who was born in Iran to American parents and who served as senior adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign, may have held clandestine meetings, bringing together officials from the Obama administration and the Iranian regime.

Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran, where her father worked in a hospital. The family left Iran when Jarrett was five years old. Many believe she speaks Farsi, or Persian, the official language of Iran.

In the corresponding video report, filed by Wendell Goler, Obama administration officials vehemently denied any Jarrett involvement. Obama’s confirmed lies on Obamacare, coupled with Lake’s report that clandestine talks between the U.S. and Iran have in fact been taking place behind the scenes for months makes those denials then ring hollow now.

Also quoted in last year’s Fox News report was an Iranian official who said:

“There’s no such thing as negotiations between the U.S. and Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Thursday.

Yeah, right.