Washington reassesses Iran policy: article

TEHRAN,July 27(MNA) – The United States is reassessing its policy toward Iran and the opportunity created by the election of centrist cleric Hassan Rohani as Iran’s new president should be seized to strike a nuclear deal with Tehran, according to an article published on the website of the Huffington Post on Thursday. Following are excerpts of the text of the article written by Joel Rubin, the director of policy and government affairs for the Ploughshares Fund. Just when you think you understand how American and Iranian politics work, a lightning bolt comes from the sky to shake up conventional wisdom. That lightning bolt appeared last month, when the Iranian people elected a new President, Dr. Hassan Rohani, on the first ballot. Washington took notice. In response to the election, 131 Members of the House of Representatives -- including 17 Republicans and a majority of the chamber’s Democrats -- sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to use diplomatic negotiations to “…test whether Dr. Rohani’s election represents a real opportunity for progress toward a verifiable, enforceable agreement on Iran’s nuclear program that ensures the country does not acquire a nuclear weapon.” This was the single largest expression of support for active American diplomacy with Iran ever made by the U.S. Congress. The bipartisan initiative, led by Representatives Charlie Dent (R-PA) and David Price (D-NC), reflects a growing view in Washington that the U.S. should take advantage of the unique opportunity presented by Rohani’s election to move nuclear negotiations forward. And it’s not just Congress calling for this reassessment. The administration is also weighing its options. President Obama stated the day after the vote that the United States would “…respect the vote of the Iranian people and congratulate(s) them for their participation in the political process, and their courage in making their voices heard.” Since then, preparations for renewed negotiations between the West and Iran over its nuclear program have begun. These negotiations should be strengthened by the changing political dynamics in Washington and Tehran. It is therefore crucial to heed the advice of those who have been involved in diplomatic negotiations with … adversaries, like Ambassadors Thomas Pickering and Bill Luers, who dealt with the Soviet Union. In a recent article for the New York Review of Books, they wrote, “With innovative and assertive diplomacy, the Obama administration can, in our view, still help change the direction of U.S.-Iran relations, reach an interim nuclear agreement, and possibly open the door to discussions on other regional and bilateral issues.” This Washington reassessment of the new possibilities for negotiations with Iran is remarkable, especially when compared to the American political environment of less than a year ago. It’s important to recall that last summer, some in the U.S. were aggressively pushing for military action against Iran during the heat of the presidential race. Today, the conversation is very different. It’s widely understood now that military action against Iran should be a last resort, and that it may only delay, not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. The startling changes in both of our country’s political environments, after each country’s elections, therefore provide a new window of opportunity for nuclear negotiations that must be tested. Testing this proposition will require a clear understanding of the facts about Iran’s nuclear program. Crucial is the fact that both American and Israeli intelligence leaders continue to remind us that Iran has not yet made the political decision to build a nuclear weapon, and that it is years away from having a deployable arsenal if it were to decide to pursue one. Therefore, there is still time and space available for negotiations to produce a political agreement that will verifiably prevent Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon. … while a comprehensive nuclear deal may be too much to expect in the near term, limited confidence building agreements should be explored, to test whether this opportunity is real, and to create a new baseline of trust in the negotiations process. To achieve such a deal will require concessions on all sides, including potentially relieving pressure on Iran -- at the appropriate time -- in the form of carefully calibrated sanctions relief. This is why the current political reassessment of Iran policy is so important. A deal will have to be sold to each capital, and politics will directly impact whether a deal reached at the table will be approved and finalized.