Ryan Crocker says concessions to Iran would be more effective than sanctions

TEHRAN,May 28(MNA) – Longtime U.S. diplomat Ryan Crocker said that when dealing with Iran, negotiations and concessions would be far more effective than tougher sanctions, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. Crocker has long been viewed as America’s indispensable diplomat in the Muslim world. President George W. Bush named him ambassador to Iraq in 2007 to rescue a failing policy, and four years later, President Obama dispatched him to salvage the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Crocker, who is 63 and retired last year, believes the hard-line approach toward Iran won’t pay off. Tougher sanctions won’t persuade Tehran to stop enriching uranium, Crocker contends. Instead, he says, Obama should step up diplomacy and consider concessions to Iran. “Sanctions are easy to do, and afterwards we can tell ourselves that, ‘By God, we’ve really stuck it to them,’” Crocker said in an interview. Crocker is among 35 high-powered foreign policy and intelligence veterans, some with extensive Middle East experience, who are pushing the White House and Congress to change course to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear program. The bipartisan group, which calls itself the Iran Project, includes former Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former U.S. ambassador to Russia Thomas Pickering and veteran diplomat James Dobbins, who recently rejoined government as Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Crocker and the group aren’t urging that sanctions be immediately dropped. At the same time, they argue, a hard line in and of itself won’t work. Successive U.S. administrations have hit Iran with economic penalties since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And more sanctions are likely. Congress has begun preparing legislation, with wide bipartisan support, that could seek to impose a near total trade embargo on Iran. Yet with international diplomacy with Iran stalled, some administration officials may be ready to offer sweeteners to Iran. At the last round of talks, in February in Kazakhstan, the United States and five other world powers offered Tehran modest concessions, including softening limits on trade using gold and other precious metals, and easing some restrictions on petrochemical exports, if the Iranians agreed to halt production of medium-enriched uranium. The Iranians did not accept the offer. American officials are concerned that Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons; leaders in Tehran contend they are developing nuclear capabilities for strictly civilian purposes. “We will give diplomacy every chance to succeed,” said a senior administration official. “But ultimately, the onus is on Iran,” said the official, who declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the subject. If the administration did offer concessions, it would risk a clash with Congress and with Israel, which don’t want to ease pressure until Tehran commits to irrevocable curbs on its nuclear program.