### Foreign Policy Luminaries: New Iran Sanctions Could Have Grave Consequences
For Immediate Release January 6, 2014 CONTACT: Iris Bieri,
[email protected], (212) 812-4372
In a letter today, a bipartisan group of senior foreign policy luminaries urged senators not to pass new sanctions against Iran, warning that additional sanctions would jeopardize ongoing diplomatic efforts and potentially move the U.S. closer to war. The letter’s nine signers include Ryan Crocker, former Ambassador Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Daniel Kurtzer, Kurtzer, former former Ambassador Ambassador to Israel and Thomas R. Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and and former Ambassador Ambassador to Israel, Israel, India India Jordan, Jordan, Russia and the United United Nations. The letter was delivered to the co-sponsors of the Nuclear Weapon Free Act of 2013 introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL). The bill would add more sanctions on Iran and purchasers of its oil as well as position the U.S. to support Israel militarily, economically and diplomatically if they choose to take military action against Iran. “The bill will threaten the prospects for success in the current negotiations and thus present us and our friends with a stark choice – military action or living with a nuclear Iran, ” the authors wrote.
The letter ’s ’s authors agree with Obama Administration officials that this sanctions bill, even if it took effect in 6 months, would call into serious question Washington’s good faith and possibly isolate the U.S. within the P5+1 with dangerous results for the existing sanctions regime. “We urge you to take a second look at this legislation, accept that you have achieved your objective of putting down a marker for Iran, but not press this bill to a vote,” the letter read.
The full letter is included below and available online here. To speak with one of the authors listed below, contact Iris Bieri at
[email protected], (212) 812-4372. ###
Chairman Robert Menendez United States Senate 522 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 20510 January 6, 2014 Dear Chairman Menendez, We ask you and the other cosponsors of the Menendez/Kirk bill, bill, S. 1881, to review carefully whether that legislation serves U.S. national interests and those of our friends and allies. We believe it does not for a number of important reasons. The bill will threaten the the prospects for success success in the current negotiations negotiations and thus present us and our friends with a stark choice – military military action or living with a nuclear Iran. A military strike would would not eliminate Iran’s nuclear nuclear capacity
and may result in the very thing the U.S. hopes to prevent: Iran deciding to seek nuclear weapons. Living with an Iranian nuclear weapon is exactly the outcome the U.S. seeks to avoid with international negotiations. President Obama’s decision to test the intentions of the new g overnment overnment of
Iran offers the best opportunity in decades to see whether there is a peaceful way to achieve all of our our most important objectives. objectives. More importantly importantly if Iran were to agree to substantial substantial and verifiable verifiable limits on its nuclear program - which they say they are prepared prepared to do – the the world would be a safer place than if the international community were to try to achieve such objectives through war. You and your co-sponsors co-sponsors contend that since since sanctions brought Iran Iran to the table to negotiate seriously, then more sanctions or legislated threats of more sanctions would make Iran’s leaders even more determined to give us what we
seek. To the contrary, Iranian Iranian leaders are more more likely to see such Congressional action as a violation of the spirit and perhaps the letter of the Joint Plan of Action of November November 24, 2013, and to harden rather than soften their negotiating position. Already, Iranian legislators have threatened to pass a bill requiring enrichment at higher levels -- beyond 20% -- in response to S. 1881.
This kind of tit-for-tat tit-for-tat spiral threatens threatens to undermine any possibility possibility of curtailing curtailing Iran’s nuclear program. Once the new Iranian president declared his government’s readiness to
negotiate immediately and seriously a comprehensive agreement to give the international community virtually everything it seeks in return for gradual sanctions relief, the Iranians had every right to assume that the US and the other nations involved in the negotiations would proceed in good faith. Based on our experience born of years of dealings with Iran, we do not believe the Iranians will continue to negotiate under new or increased threats. The outcome of these negotiations is by no means certain. Should Should the U.S. Congress decide it must unilaterally seek to add even more burdens now on this complicated and critical process, it is unlikely that the goals of our negotiations can be achieved. Moreover our other negotiating partners (UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China) would be displeased and would conclude that the US is no longer proceeding in good faith in accord with the Joint Plan of Action. This bill could lead to an unraveling of the sanctions regime that the U.S. and its partners have so patiently built. The United States and its allies in the region region would better off if relieved relieved of the concern that Iran might acquire a nuclear weapon. Israel would no longer have to be concerned that Iran could present an existential threat and would be in a stronger position to to defend itself. This is particularly particularly true in view of the capacity for self-defense inherent in Israel’s overwhelming military power, both conventional forces and its well-known strategic capabilities. We urge you to take a second look at this legislation, legislation, accept that you have achieved your objective of putting down a marker for Iran, but not press this bill to a vote. You do not sacrifice sacrifice any of your options options by doing so. Negotiators now need a chance to continue to their work. work. We ask that you stand up firmly for the interests of the United States, as you always have, and allow the negotiations to proceed. Sincerely, Ryan Crocker , former Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan Stephen Heintz , President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Daniel Kurtzer , former Ambassador to Israel William H. Luers , former Ambassador to Venezuela and Czechoslovakia
Jessica Tuchman Mathews , President of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace Thomas R. Pickering , former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and
former Ambassador to Israel, India Jordan, Russia and the United Nations Paul Pillar , former National Intelligence Officer Jim Walsh , Research Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Frank G. Wisner , former Under Secretary of State for International Security
Affairs and Under Under Secretary of Defense Defense for Policy
