Don’t Undermine the Iran Deal
By CARL M. LEVIN and ANGUS S. KING JR., NYT, JAN. 27, 2014
WASHINGTON — There are only two ways to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon: negotiations or military action.
Amazingly, after 34 years of mostly diplomatic silence between Iran and the United States, we are in the midst of just such negotiations, with the potential to eliminate the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Instead of cautiously welcoming this development and letting these talks play out over the next six months, however, proposals are circulating in Congress that seek to impose additional sanctions in the middle of the negotiations. This step, we fear, risks scuttling the process and could have damaging ramifications for the United States as well as our regional allies and partners, especially Israel.
The increasingly stringent economic sanctions that have been imposed on Iran over the last three decades have worked. Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, came to office last year promising an improved economy, and he seems to have quickly realized that the only way to deliver on this promise is by achieving relief from the sanctions. And so, with the approval of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has finally come to the table — reluctantly and grudgingly.
(More here.)
WASHINGTON — There are only two ways to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon: negotiations or military action.
Amazingly, after 34 years of mostly diplomatic silence between Iran and the United States, we are in the midst of just such negotiations, with the potential to eliminate the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Instead of cautiously welcoming this development and letting these talks play out over the next six months, however, proposals are circulating in Congress that seek to impose additional sanctions in the middle of the negotiations. This step, we fear, risks scuttling the process and could have damaging ramifications for the United States as well as our regional allies and partners, especially Israel.
The increasingly stringent economic sanctions that have been imposed on Iran over the last three decades have worked. Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, came to office last year promising an improved economy, and he seems to have quickly realized that the only way to deliver on this promise is by achieving relief from the sanctions. And so, with the approval of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has finally come to the table — reluctantly and grudgingly.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Just why are an overwhelming number of Democratic and Republican senators willing to push for more sanctions? Let's see, Rouhani tweets out Iran has fooled the West on the deal; Iran hasn't released one political prisoner or halted any more public hangings; Iran continues to fight in Syria and support Hezbollah; and wait, it added more hardliners to its negotiating team! Come on people, it's a government who's constitution grants supreme veto powers to the religious head! That's like having the President answer to the Pope, in this case, the Pope wants nukes. If Iran makes no concrete and overt act to demonstrate it has changed its tune, then why all of the sudden the rush to embrace Rouhani simply because he smiles and has a Twitter account (a social media service by the way that ordinary Iranians are BANNED from using!)?
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