Obama Urges Diplomacy with Iran in State of the Union

January 29, 2014 | Edited by Lauren Mladenka and Geoff Wilson

State of diplomacy - “[It] is American diplomacy, backed by pressure, that has halted the progress of Iran’s nuclear program — and rolled back parts of that program — for the very first time in a decade. As we gather here tonight, Iran has begun to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium,” said President Obama in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

--”These negotiations will be difficult; they may not succeed. We are cleareyed about Iran’s support for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, which threaten our allies; and we’re clear about the mistrust between our nations, mistrust that cannot be wished away. But these negotiations don’t rely on trust; any long-term deal we agree to must be based on verifiable action that convinces us and the international community that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb. If John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could negotiate with the Soviet Union, then surely a strong and confident America can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today.”

--”The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible. But let me be clear: if this Congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it. For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed.” Read the full transcript in The New York Times. http://nyti.ms/1cuITxE

Fund and verify - “Ensuring that Iran does not cheat on its deal will require the allocation of additional funds for enhanced inspections,” write Blaise Misztal and Stephen Rademaker.

--“The White House and Capitol Hill should put aside their disagreements on how to negotiate with Iran, and Democrats and Republicans should capitalize on their bipartisan budget success to work together find the money in the new budget to fund these enhanced inspections. Prospects for a negotiated solution will be diminished if we do not even have the resources to verify that Iran is keeping to the promises it already has made.” Full article in The Hill. http://bit.ly/1byabPz

On second thought - “I did not sign [the Senate’s new Iran sanctions bill] with the intention that it would ever be voted upon or used upon while we’re negotiating...I signed it because I wanted to make sure the president had a hammer if he needed it and showed him how determined we were to do it and use it if we had to. But with that being said we’ve got to give peace a chance here and we’ve got to support this process,” said Sen. Joe Manchin to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Manchin also said the bill should not come to a vote, noting “That’s not the right thing to do...I hope we can have an adult conversation on this, all of us to come together to give peace a chance to survive.” ThinkProgress has the quote. http://bit.ly/1e7mkkr

Fact Sheet - “Implementation of the Joint Plan of Action at a Glance” created by The Arms Control Association. http://bit.ly/1aFGnWH

Nuke probe grows - “The cheating scandal inside the Air Force's nuclear missile corps is expanding, with the number of service members implicated by investigators now roughly double the 34 reported just a week ago,” writes Robert Burns for the AP. “It wasn't immediately clear whether the additional 30-plus airmen suspected of being involved in cheating on proficiency tests are alleged to have participated in the cheating directly or were involved indirectly.”

--“Regardless, a doubling of the number implicated means that approximately 14 percent of the entire Air Force cadre of nuclear missile launch control officers, which numbers about 500, has been removed at least temporarily from active missile duty.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/Lo5wcM

Missile defense still broken - “The U.S. Missile Defense Agency should consider redesigning a key part of its ground-based missile defense system after a series of test failures in recent years, the Pentagon's chief arms tester said in a new report due to be released Wednesday,” writes Andrea Shalal-Esa for Reuters. “The flight test failures that have occurred during the past three years raise questions regarding the robustness of the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV),” says the new report.

--"It appears that [the Pentagon’s department of operational test and evaluation] has finally come to the conclusion that the GMD interceptors ... may be so flawed that a complete redesign is required," said Kingston Reif. http://reut.rs/1ex43bd

Jumping to conclusions - “Critics of the ongoing diplomatic process with Iran unsurprisingly jumped on President Rouhani's remarks that Iran will not destroy any of its approximately 19,000 centrifuges as evidence that Iran is negotiating in bad faith and will never take the steps necessary to ensure that its program cannot be used to make bombs,” notes Kingston Reif in Nukes of Hazard. However, “everyone needs to calm down.”

--“The November 2013 first step agreement between the P5+1 and Iran verifiably caps Iran's nuclear program and rolls back its most proliferation sensitive aspect...However, neither side intends this to be the end state of the diplomatic process. The P5+1 rightly seeks much greater constraints on Iran's program (including but not confined to limits on the number of centrifuges) and Tehran seeks much greater relief from sanctions. Constructing a deal that meets the requirements of both sides is the subject of the next round of talks, which are slated to get underway in February...At this point it’s not at all clear what Rouhani meant by dismantlement or what end state he and the Supreme Leader would or would not accept...A long and difficult negotiation, which will encompass far more than the issue of centrifuges, is ahead of us and we shouldn’t rush to judgment based on limited information,” Reif argues. Full article here. http://bit.ly/LofE5s

Tweet - @CFR_org: #ThisDayinHistory, 1996: President of France Jacques Chirac announces France will no longer test nuclear weapons.

Easy as 123 - ”House Quickly Passes South Korea Nuke Deal Extension” by Pete Kasperowicz for The Hill. http://bit.ly/1fdlWyW

Punishing the peace activists - A judge has ordered an 83-year-old nun and two other Catholic peace activists to pay full restitution of nearly $53,000 for damaging the primary U.S. storehouse for bomb-grade uranium,” reports Travis Loller for AP. “The three were convicted of sabotage last year after they broke into the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, TN. The restitution covers damage incurred at the plant when the three cut through fences and painted slogans on the outside wall of the uranium processing plant there.”

--”The three have argued that their actions were symbolic and meant to draw attention to America's stockpile of nuclear weapons, which they believe to be immoral and illegal,” writes Loller. Full story here. http://abcn.ws/1jJ2YEm

Events:

--50th anniversary of the release of “Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” January 29, 2014.http://bit.ly/1gjkC0Z

--”Recommendations for a Final Deal with Iran” featuring David Albright. Jan. 29th from 1:00-2:30 PM at George Washington University. http://bit.ly/1i3L641

--"Solving Today’s Nuclear Nightmares." featuring Joseph Cirincione. Feb. 3rd at Noon-1:30 PM at George Washington University. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1b0Ncgf