NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, a United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Op-Ed was featured in the debut edition of Politico Magazine.
In the piece, “How to Stare Down Iran,” UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, and UANI advisory board members, Senator Joe Lieberman and Fran Townsend, call on Congress to involve itself in debating the terms of a nuclear agreement with Iran.
Below are excerpts of the piece:
[At the] high-stakes diplomatic meetings that occurred in Geneva last weekend … the international community came perilously close to signing off on a deal that would have given Tehran access to billions of dollars in frozen funds and other sanctions relief in exchange for a package of supposed concessions that did not include Iran suspending its nuclear enrichment or slowing the construction of its heavy-water reactor. …
The American people should not count on continual delay … an agreement along the lines discussed in Geneva is still conceivable. The danger now is that the international community will be tempted to offer new concessions and sweeteners to reach an agreement, and Iran will receive the sanctions relief it badly desires. We are particularly troubled by statements from senior U.S. officials that have telegraphed a desire to get to “yes” in these talks as quickly as possible.
This is why we strongly feel that the U.S. Congress needs to become involved in this process, and weigh in on the essential principles that would underpin any nuclear agreement with Iran. It is quite an appropriate role for Congress to play, given its authority in passing, lifting and potentially increasing sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran desperately wants sanctions relief. At the very least, Congress should insist that any agreement that does lift sanctions should require the Iranian regime to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing-related activities for a substantial period. This is by no means an extreme position, but in fact what has been previously demanded by the international community and permanent members of the Security Council in multiple U.N. resolutions. …
The sanctions framework is what brought Iran to the table in the first place; it is working, but fragile, and its various components are interdependent. If current sanctions law is even partially unwound on an interim basis, the effects on the overall sanctions regime will be far-reaching and potentially crippling.
Congress should also demonstrate that Iran can anticipate new and more robust sanctions as long as it keeps refusing to suspend its enrichment-related activities. This would constitute an important pillar of the U.S. position, since Iran has always found a way around sanctions if given enough time. Future conversations in Geneva and elsewhere should not be strictly about relief from existing sanctions, but also should include the very real possibility of new and ever increasing ones.
If Iran is not yet ready to take the necessary steps to halt its march toward a nuclear capability, then we should make use of the numerous measures at our disposal to squeeze the regime harder, rather than rush to make concessions ourselves.
Click here to read the full piece.
