Sunday 20 July 2014

Iran has not made significant nuclear concessions

As the July 20 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran is delayed four months, the United States should expand non-military pressure on Iran to boost the chances of a breakthrough. Iran should face a clear choice — make significant concessions before the new Nov. 24 deadline or suffer crippling economic sanctions.

Last November, Iran paused parts of its nuclear program in return for partial relief of economic sanctions. Yet Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Congress that Iran retains substantial illicit nuclear infrastructure and could potentially produce explosive nuclear material for a weapon in "two months."

It's alarming that Washington's generous offer of eventual comprehensive sanctions relief hasn't persuaded Tehran to make any significant nuclear concessions. In fact, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently declared that his regime, rather than reduce its fleet of 19,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium, should increase it up to 190,000 units.

With Iran unwilling to make significant nuclear concessions, the Obama administration has decided to put more time on the clock for a deal. But if that's all it does, it's almost certain to fail.

Non-military pressure on Iran, in the form of economic sanctions, reopened the door to diplomacy. As President Obama conceded to Congress in his 2014 State of the Union, "The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible." In turn, expanded non-military pressure can keep open the diplomatic door and persuade Iran to accept a good nuclear deal that's comprehensive, airtight and long-lasting.

The White House should start by working with Congress. Sanctions legislation introduced by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., last December, for example, offers a fruitful approach. It would create a new framework that better balances diplomacy with non-military pressure, promising to impose decisive and crippling economic sanctions if Iran won't make significant nuclear concessions.

President Obama has pledged to use all means to block Iran's path to a nuclear weapon, but he's also rightly said, "No deal is better than a bad deal." As he doubles-down on diplomacy, he shouldn't forget the one tool with a proven track-record on Iran — non-military pressure.

Robert Zarate, a former congressional staffer, is policy director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, a non-partisan and non-profit organization in Washington, D.C.




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