FCNL Letter Urges President to Continue Iran Engagement

Apr 15, 2010

April 9, 2010

Dear President Obama,

We write to urge you to redouble your administration's efforts to engage the Islamic Republic of Iran in broad-based negotiations to resolve international concerns over Iran's nuclear program and to enlist Iranian cooperation to promote regional security.

We are concerned that your administration's public emphasis on imposing more sanctions on Iran is reducing the chances for meaningful engagement, which represents the most realistic prospect of securing Iranian cooperation with the United States and allies.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said last month that he did not "see a set of sanctions coming along that would be so detrimental to the Iranians that they are going to stop [their nuclear] program, so ultimately, the solution has to be a negotiated one..." We doubt that any serious analyst thinks otherwise, but domestic political pressure for a "get tough" approach to Iran is pushing U.S. policy toward failure.

This week Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki reaffirmed that Iran remained interested in concluding a deal to exchange most of its low-enriched uranium for fuel for a research reaction that makes medical isotopes. "If there is a political will, Iran's flexibility will facilitate a deal," he said. Iran is reportedly proposing to place its uranium under UN custody in Iran until the promised nuclear fuel is ready for delivery and to then make a simultaneous exchange. Accepting such a condition would not reduce the benefits of the agreement. Rejecting it would reinforce Iranian skeptics who argue that the West intends to take Iran's uranium and default on delivery of the fuel.

Also this week, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, had harsh words for the United States. He threatened to retaliate against U.S. troops in the region, "if America presents Iran with a serious threat and undertakes any measure against Iran." This is the same man who five months ago championed the tentative uranium exchange agreement. "We won't suffer from an exchange of fuel," he argued in the public debate that the tentative agreement produced in Iran. "On the contrary, in obtaining fuel enriched to 20 percent purity for the Tehran reactor, a million of our citizens will benefit from the medical treatment it can enable and we will prove at the same time the bona fides of our peaceful nuclear activities."

More sanctions and more punitive rhetoric won't bring the United States closer to achieving its aims. Instead, a punitive approach will produce more negative shifts like that reflected in Gen. Firouzabadi's remarks this week. We urge you to redouble your efforts at engagement, especially a patient and flexible effort to achieve a uranium-fuel exchange agreement with Iran. Negotiations are the only path to success.

Sincerely,

Jim Fine
Legislative Secretary for Foreign Policy

PDF Version