White House, Congress Clash on Iran - The Obama Administration Is Arguing that Diplomatic Efforts Need More Time
From The Wall Street Journal:
The White House is pressing Congress to hold back on new sanctions against Iran, pitting the administration's hopes for a re-energized diplomatic engagement against the growing concern of some lawmakers and foreign allies.
The Obama administration is arguing that diplomatic efforts need more time to contain Tehran's nuclear program. But a number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers want to bring a new sanctions bill targeting Iran's oil exports and finances to a Senate vote by the end of next week. A similar bill cleared the House of Representatives in July and is waiting to be reconciled with the Senate's.
"Iran needs to immediately end its systematic noncompliance with the repeated demands of the U.N.," said Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.), the House majority leader. "We all want negotiations to succeed, but time is clearly running out."
Senators have delayed action once already, after Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state, asked for a chance to meet the Iranians in Geneva Oct. 15 and 16 to restart negotiations. The White House, which regarded the Geneva meeting as a success, intensified its outreach to Congress this week, and said that American negotiators needed more "flexibility" to pursue the diplomacy in the coming weeks, said congressional staffers briefed on the Obama administration's strategy.
The National Security Council's point man on Iran, Philip Gordon, hosted Senate staffers at the White House on Thursday, and argued that clamping new sanctions on Iran at this stage could prove counterproductive, according to these staffers. A new round of negotiations between global powers and the Iranian government of President Hasan Rouhani is scheduled for Nov. 7-8 in Geneva.
"The White House is asking that nothing be done to undercut their efforts," said a Republican Senate staffer briefed on the White House meeting.
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on Thursday's deliberations, but said the administration hoped to continue working with U.S. lawmakers to maintain pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.
"Congress has been an important partner in our efforts thus far," said Caitlin Hayden, an NSC spokeswoman. "We will continue our close consultation, as we have in the past, so that any congressional action is aligned with our negotiating strategy."
Separately, Ms. Sherman recommended Friday that Congress pause action on new sanctions in an interview with the Voice of America news service.
A spokesman for the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Democrat Tim Johnson of South Dakota, said no date has been set for completing the Iran bill in the Senate.
Many of Washington's closest Middle East allies, particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia, have argued that international sanctions on Iran should be increased, not diminished, for diplomacy ultimately to succeed in restraining Tehran.
Iranian oil exports have been cut in half over the past year due to American and European sanctions. This is the primary reason Mr. Rouhani's government has so aggressively embraced diplomacy since taking office in August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly argued in recent weeks.
The U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security, an independent group that has tracked Iran's nuclear capabilities, released a report this week saying Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one atomic bomb in as quickly as one month. The think tank says this could be achieved if Iran used its entire stockpile of enriched uranium and all its first-generation centrifuge machines.
Iran has denied Western charges that it is trying to build nuclear weapons, saying its program is intended for power production.
The report on Iran's capabilities, coupled with the next stages of talks, brought anxious reactions from pro-Israeli lawmakers.
The Israeli leader's allies on Capitol Hill have been pressing for immediate new sanctions
"Despite President Rouhani's 'charm offensive,' Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons capability continues unabated," said the Republican Jewish Coalition's director Matt Brooks. "By moving aggressively to ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran, Congress enhances the prospect that the regime will alter its dangerous course."
"Our resolve to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability remains unchanged and we will not hesitate from proceeding with further sanctions and other options to protect U.S. interests and ensure regional security," The Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, said after meeting Mr. Netanyahu late last month.
Obama administration officials feel they already have significant economic leverage over Tehran and worry additional sanctions at this stage could undermine Mr. Rouhani's ability to negotiate.
Conservative Iranian religious and military leaders have been attacking Mr. Rouhani's outreach to the U.S., particularly his September phone call with President Barack Obama.
It was the first conversation between an American and Iranian president in more than three decades.
New sanctions in Iran, Obama administration officials believe, could only embolden the hard-liners to attack Mr. Rouhani. "We can always impose new sanctions later if the Iranians pull back from the talks," said a senior U.S. official.
Negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, are focused on a two-stage approach toward limiting Tehran's nuclear work, according to diplomats taking part in the talks.
The Geneva meetings are seeking a short-term formula that will prevent Iran from having the capacity to quickly break out and develop nuclear weapons.
Once these confidence-building steps are taken, Iran and the global powers, known as the P5+1, would seek to reach a final agreement on ending Iran's nuclear threat, according to these diplomats.
Mr. Rouhani's government is demanding, in return, a significant and rapid rollback of the sanctions that have decimated Tehran's finances. The U.S. and its European allies are struggling to find ways to respond to Iranian concessions without weakening the overall international sanctions regime.
Among the steps being considered, according to U.S. and European officials, are measures to help Tehran reclaim billions of dollars of its oil earnings that have been frozen in overseas accounts. The Obama administration and European Union are also considering ways to ease restrictions on Tehran's access to the international banking system.
The Obama administration has fought Congress on Iran sanctions for much of its time in office.
The White House deeply opposed a bipartisan congressional effort in 2011 to impose U.S. sanctions on Iran's central bank, the primary conduit for Tehran's oil exports. Obama administration officials worried implementation of the legislation could fuel a spike in global energy prices—undermining the U.S.'s economic recovery—as global supply would shrink.
U.S. officials today acknowledge that the sanctioning of Iran's central bank, and the European Union's oil embargo on Tehran, have probably been the most punishing measures on Iran to date.
The White House is pressing Congress to hold back on new sanctions against Iran, pitting the administration's hopes for a re-energized diplomatic engagement against the growing concern of some lawmakers and foreign allies.
The Obama administration is arguing that diplomatic efforts need more time to contain Tehran's nuclear program. But a number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers want to bring a new sanctions bill targeting Iran's oil exports and finances to a Senate vote by the end of next week. A similar bill cleared the House of Representatives in July and is waiting to be reconciled with the Senate's.
"Iran needs to immediately end its systematic noncompliance with the repeated demands of the U.N.," said Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.), the House majority leader. "We all want negotiations to succeed, but time is clearly running out."
Senators have delayed action once already, after Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state, asked for a chance to meet the Iranians in Geneva Oct. 15 and 16 to restart negotiations. The White House, which regarded the Geneva meeting as a success, intensified its outreach to Congress this week, and said that American negotiators needed more "flexibility" to pursue the diplomacy in the coming weeks, said congressional staffers briefed on the Obama administration's strategy.
The National Security Council's point man on Iran, Philip Gordon, hosted Senate staffers at the White House on Thursday, and argued that clamping new sanctions on Iran at this stage could prove counterproductive, according to these staffers. A new round of negotiations between global powers and the Iranian government of President Hasan Rouhani is scheduled for Nov. 7-8 in Geneva.
"The White House is asking that nothing be done to undercut their efforts," said a Republican Senate staffer briefed on the White House meeting.
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on Thursday's deliberations, but said the administration hoped to continue working with U.S. lawmakers to maintain pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.
"Congress has been an important partner in our efforts thus far," said Caitlin Hayden, an NSC spokeswoman. "We will continue our close consultation, as we have in the past, so that any congressional action is aligned with our negotiating strategy."
Separately, Ms. Sherman recommended Friday that Congress pause action on new sanctions in an interview with the Voice of America news service.
A spokesman for the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Democrat Tim Johnson of South Dakota, said no date has been set for completing the Iran bill in the Senate.
Many of Washington's closest Middle East allies, particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia, have argued that international sanctions on Iran should be increased, not diminished, for diplomacy ultimately to succeed in restraining Tehran.
Iranian oil exports have been cut in half over the past year due to American and European sanctions. This is the primary reason Mr. Rouhani's government has so aggressively embraced diplomacy since taking office in August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly argued in recent weeks.
The U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security, an independent group that has tracked Iran's nuclear capabilities, released a report this week saying Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one atomic bomb in as quickly as one month. The think tank says this could be achieved if Iran used its entire stockpile of enriched uranium and all its first-generation centrifuge machines.
Iran has denied Western charges that it is trying to build nuclear weapons, saying its program is intended for power production.
The report on Iran's capabilities, coupled with the next stages of talks, brought anxious reactions from pro-Israeli lawmakers.
The Israeli leader's allies on Capitol Hill have been pressing for immediate new sanctions
"Despite President Rouhani's 'charm offensive,' Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons capability continues unabated," said the Republican Jewish Coalition's director Matt Brooks. "By moving aggressively to ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran, Congress enhances the prospect that the regime will alter its dangerous course."
"Our resolve to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability remains unchanged and we will not hesitate from proceeding with further sanctions and other options to protect U.S. interests and ensure regional security," The Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, said after meeting Mr. Netanyahu late last month.
Obama administration officials feel they already have significant economic leverage over Tehran and worry additional sanctions at this stage could undermine Mr. Rouhani's ability to negotiate.
Conservative Iranian religious and military leaders have been attacking Mr. Rouhani's outreach to the U.S., particularly his September phone call with President Barack Obama.
It was the first conversation between an American and Iranian president in more than three decades.
New sanctions in Iran, Obama administration officials believe, could only embolden the hard-liners to attack Mr. Rouhani. "We can always impose new sanctions later if the Iranians pull back from the talks," said a senior U.S. official.
Negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, are focused on a two-stage approach toward limiting Tehran's nuclear work, according to diplomats taking part in the talks.
The Geneva meetings are seeking a short-term formula that will prevent Iran from having the capacity to quickly break out and develop nuclear weapons.
Once these confidence-building steps are taken, Iran and the global powers, known as the P5+1, would seek to reach a final agreement on ending Iran's nuclear threat, according to these diplomats.
Mr. Rouhani's government is demanding, in return, a significant and rapid rollback of the sanctions that have decimated Tehran's finances. The U.S. and its European allies are struggling to find ways to respond to Iranian concessions without weakening the overall international sanctions regime.
Among the steps being considered, according to U.S. and European officials, are measures to help Tehran reclaim billions of dollars of its oil earnings that have been frozen in overseas accounts. The Obama administration and European Union are also considering ways to ease restrictions on Tehran's access to the international banking system.
The Obama administration has fought Congress on Iran sanctions for much of its time in office.
The White House deeply opposed a bipartisan congressional effort in 2011 to impose U.S. sanctions on Iran's central bank, the primary conduit for Tehran's oil exports. Obama administration officials worried implementation of the legislation could fuel a spike in global energy prices—undermining the U.S.'s economic recovery—as global supply would shrink.
U.S. officials today acknowledge that the sanctioning of Iran's central bank, and the European Union's oil embargo on Tehran, have probably been the most punishing measures on Iran to date.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 1:09 AM
1 Comments:
Rouhani is pursuing the same strategy he successfully employed for years -- making promises that he has no intention of keeping. The talks have been described as promising and many people are optimistic that this may be the dawn of a more peaceful and less provocative Iran. We have been down this road before. While serving as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Rouhani earned the nickname “diplomat sheikh” for successfully running down the clock in negotiations as Tehran’s nuclear program expanded. Since the June election, Iran has installed thousands of new centrifuges and just last month, the new president declared that Iran will not give up “one iota” of its nuclear rights. One has to wonder why Iran needs nuclear civilian energy when it has enough oil and gas to last for generations. Allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons will alter the balance of power in the Middle East. Slogans without meaningful action should not be enough to gain the international community’s trust. Rouhani is intent on selling the world on Iran’s innocence; don’t buy the charm offensive. Iran saw how North Korea fooled the world about its nuclear ambitions (and got away with it). And Iran's just repeating what works.
Post a Comment
<< Home