FCNL

Iran: What is Congress Trying to Do?

Right now, most of Congress seems to think that Iran needs to be punished and isolated. New Iran sanctions just went into effect last week, and more sanctions are coming out of the Senate Banking Committee today. These are headed for a vote on the Senate floor in the next few weeks. Please urge your senators to oppose these new sanctions as ineffective foreign policy and to speak out in favor of diplomacy, not war, with Iran.

Three decades of sanctions have not persuaded Iran to agree to full transparency of its nuclear program. Continued pressure could have the effect of pushing Iranian leaders to demonstrate their power. As Princeton Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter argues, the current course of sanctions piled on sanctions "leaves Iran's government no alternative between publicly backing down, which it will not do, and escalating its provocations."¹ This kind of escalation is a "dangerous game of…chicken" that could lead to violent conflict.

Instead, the U.S. should be finding ways to keep Iran within the international community; open lines of diplomatic communication, as former head of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has recommended;² and reduce the incentives for Iranian leaders to take Iran's nuclear program to the next level.

Business leaders³ and many former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts⁴ are endorsing this view. Yet as our lead foreign policy lobbyist Bridget Moix noted this week,⁵ the people making decisions aren't weighing the diplomatic options that could steer the U.S. and Iran away from violent conflict - and the policy of threats that Congress is undertaking is closing down the space for diplomatic options to be seriously considered and pursued.

As the Senate takes up new sanctions legislation, your senators are hearing from people in your community who support tougher sanctions on Iran. Your senators need to know that some of their constituents want a different approach. Please urge your senators to oppose the new sanctions legislation introduced this week by Senators Tim Johnson (SD) and Richard Shelby (AL).

Sincerely,