Amb. Crocker on Iran: Let Negotiators Play Their Role

February 7, 2014 | Edited by Lauren Mladenka and Geoff Wilson

Diplomat’s view - “In his State of the Union address, President Obama sent a strong message to the Senate to support our nation’s diplomats engaged in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, saying ‘For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed.’ The Senate has played an important role by applying pressure in concert with world powers that brought Tehran to the negotiating table. Now, with the pressure of sanctions having achieved its goal, the most important role Congress can play is to leave the negotiations in the able hands of American diplomats,” writes Amb. Ryan Crocker.

--”After decades of mistrust, coming to a long-term agreement with Iran on its nuclear program will be an enormous challenge. Sanctions — many of which came from Congress — played an instrumental role in bringing Iran to the negotiating table, but economic pressure is only effective if it is part of a larger strategy. Without negotiations, sanctions do little to slow Iran’s nuclear program. Congress has played its role in that strategy; it’s time to let the negotiators play theirs.” Full piece in U.S. News. http://bit.ly/NeqY5e

Good money after bad - “The U.S. Defense Department plans to ask Congress for $4.5 billion in extra missile defense funding over the next five years as part of the fiscal 2015 budget request,” reports Andrea Shalal-Esa for Reuters. “Nearly $1 billion of that sum will pay for a new homeland defense radar to be placed in Alaska, with an additional $560 million to fund work on a new interceptor after several failed flight tests.”

--“The Pentagon's request for added funding comes despite continued pressure on military spending and cuts in other arms programs,” yet the program remains one of the biggest items in the Pentagon’s annual budget. The request is expected to garner bipartisan support in Congress, but it may also spark questions about billions of dollars spent over the past two decades on a ‘kill vehicle,’” that has faced continued failure in tests and simulations. Read the full report here. http://reut.rs/MwgRYw

ICBM report - “The Future of the U.S. Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Force” by Lauren Caston et al. for RAND. http://bit.ly/1jkdstZ

Supporting diplomacy - “So the question now for Congress is this: How can we support the diplomatic campaign to isolate Iran and force it to abandon any nuclear weapons ambitions? Passing legislation now to impose additional unilateral sanctions on Iran, while negotiations are ongoing, would not strengthen our position in those talks. In fact, it is more likely to weaken our position.” writes Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) in U.S. News.

--”We owe it to our friends and allies in the region, and to our men and women in uniform who might have to risk their lives if diplomacy fails, to give negotiations every chance to succeed. And that means holding off on new sanctions legislation at this time,” Levin says. Full article here. http://bit.ly/1cazRSF

Sanctions politics - ”Bill Clinton, AIPAC Urge Delay on Iran Sanctions” by Many Raju and Burgess Everett in Politico. http://politi.co/1e9lBcI

Partisan turn - “The push for new sanctions on Iran is taking a sharply partisan turn in the Senate, where Republicans are now demanding a vote, while a key Democrat is circulating a petition against it.” Read the full piece by Julian Pecquet for The Hill, here. http://bit.ly/1cYD9fW

Menendez on the floor - Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) took to the Senate floor Thursday to argue in favor of his bill to put new sanctions on Iran while urging bipartisanship and noting “I hope that we will not find ourselves in a partisan process trying to force a vote on a national security matter before its appropriate time.” Full statement here. http://1.usa.gov/1f1rOsj

Sanctions report - “Iran Sanctions” by Kenneth Katzman for the Congressional Research Service. January 31, 2014. (pdf) http://bit.ly/1o0OMY0

Assaulting diplomacy - “When a group of Senators introduced new sanctions legislation just weeks after the U.S. signed an interim deal with Iran explicitly committing not to pass new sanctions, it became clear that our diplomats’ greatest challenge may not be getting a final deal with Iran, but rather getting a final deal with Congress,” writes Jamal Abdi in U.S. News. “If the U.S. would consider torpedoing an interim deal that merely called for Congress to not pass new sanctions, how will Congress ever deliver on the terms of a final agreement that would require lifting sanctions?” Full article here. http://bit.ly/1ixAiLS

Independent analysis - “The Pentagon has ordered an independent review of the growing number of ethics scandals within the U.S. military's nuclear enterprise,” Global Security Newswire reports.

--Sec. Hagel “has asked retired Navy Adm. John Harvey and former Air Force Gen. Larry Welch to head up the independent task force.” The results of the Pentagon's internal review and its recommendations are due within the next two months. Full story here. http://bit.ly/1jkdtOz

Tweet - @AFGSC_CC: New Force Improvement Program: action-oriented feedback from the bottom up for rapid change w/in ICBM mission lhttp://t.co/WZggCbvfU8ink

DPRK completing larger pad - “North Korea has almost completed enlargement of its main satellite launch pad, allowing the launch of rockets up to 50 metres in length as early as next month, a US think-tank said Friday.” Read the full report from the AFP here. http://bit.ly/1aDhevo

DOE investigates Y-12 - “The National Nuclear Security Administration has confirmed there was a recent incident involving a “small amount” of uranium oxide at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge,” the AP reports. Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor reported a scientist at Y-12 inadvertently left a sample of the material in his work clothing, which was subsequently discovered en route to being laundered.” Full report here. http://bit.ly/1f1jE2W

IAEA to investigate Iranian bomb-making - “The U.N. nuclear watchdog hopes to persuade Iran in talks on Saturday to finally start addressing long-held suspicions it has worked on designing an atomic bomb, a test of whether ties really are thawing under the Islamic state's new president,” writes Fredrik Dahl for Reuters.

--“The IAEA wants Iran to clarify suspected activities in a range of areas of potential application to developing atomic bombs, including computer calculations and experiments that could be of use for any nuclear test… The February 8 meeting comes 10 days before Iran and the world powers, building on a landmark interim deal struck in November, start negotiations on a long-term agreement on Tehran's nuclear aspirations that would avert the threat of a Middle East war.” Read the full report here. http://reut.rs/1jkfNoL

Event:

--”U.S.-Russian Relations in the 21st Century.” Discussion with Angela Stent, Fiona Hill, and Peter Baker. Feb. 18 from 2:00-3:30 at Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1bqFDTe