Trita Parsi: Give Obama Elbow Room on Iran

[Danny Postel]

Subscribe  |  View online  |  فارسی

June 14, 2012 Give Obama Elbow Room on Iran By: Trita Parsi - Opinion Featured in The New York Times The last round of nuclear negotiations with Iran ended in stalemate, and prospects appear dim for a breakthrough at next week’s meeting in Moscow. Two central factors are driving Washington’s negotiation strategy at this point. The first is Congressional obstructionism and President Obama’s limited room to maneuver in an election year. The second is outsize expectations about what the current sanctions against Iran can achieve. Both must be abandoned if talks are to succeed. Read More>> Europe's Unique Opportunity to Act By: Trita Parsi and Reza Marashi - Opinion Featured in The Huffington Post The nuclear talks in Baghdad between Iran and the Permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) failed to produce a breakthrough. The bad news is that time is running out. By July 1, the West will escalate with an embargo on oil and sanctions on Iran's Central Bank. Iran will respond in kind and the situation may get out of control. The good news is that the ball is in Europe's court and -- unlike America -- the EU has the ability to make diplomacy succeed in the short term. After more than a decade of coercive policies, the track record is clear: Iran is paying an increasingly hefty price for its nuclear program. Crippling, indiscriminate sanctions are derailing the Iranian economy and civil society. Even if sanctions are lifted, it may take years before Iran recuperates from the damage it has absorbed. Read More>>   Dobbins: Enrichment Ultimatums and Threats Undermine U.S. Goals on Iran By:  NIAC Staff - News   “In keeping the position that that Iranian nuclear capability is unacceptable, we in effect are failing to put in place the kind of instruments that actually discourage them from crossing that threshold,” said Ambassador James Dobbins, a former American diplomat and State Department official now based at the RAND Corporation, speaking at a Congressional briefing last week.   Dobbins warned against a U.S. approach to the Iranian dispute favored by many in Congress demanding Iran end all nuclear enrichment.  Instead, he said, the U.S. should focus on securing inspections and transparency mechanisms to ensure Iran’s enrichment program is purely for civilian use. Read More >> Obama, Iran, and the "Jewish Vote" By:  Trita Parsi - Analysis Special to The Daily Beast A Western diplomat recently told me that the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program are neither about Iran nor about nuclear bombs: They are about Israel. Whether or not one accepts this claim, it is clear that Israel is central in the talks. “There’s a three-way race going here,” one of Obama’s strategists told The New York Times in 2009. “We’re racing to make diplomatic progress. The Iranians are racing to make their nuclear capability a fait accompli. And the Israelis, of course, are racing to come up with a convincing military alternative.” Read More >> IAAB Announces Summer Leadership Institute By: Roshan Alemi - News On June 30th through July 11th, Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB) will launch its Summer Leadership Institute in Los Angeles, CA. The Summer Leadership Institute includes the 7th year of Camp Ayandeh, IAAB’s high school leadership camp for Iranian Americans, as well as IAAB’s first camp for middle school students- Camp Javan. Read More>>   NIAC in the News   Ploughshares Fund: Continuing the Diplomatic Process - An Interview with Reza Marashi "After more than a decade of coercive policies, the track record is clear: Iran is paying an increasingly hefty price for its nuclear program," says NIAC's Reza Marashi.             WBEZ Worldview Interviews NIAC President Trita Parsi Middle East expert Trita Parsi talks to host Jerome McDonnell about the upcoming Moscow meeting of Iranian officials and the P5+1 about Iran's nuclear program.           The Guardian: Iran Nuclear Talks - Moscow Meeting Salvaged But Real Progress Remains Elusive NIAC's Trita Parsi and Reza Marashi argue that Europe should postpone its oil embargo by six months, in return for a freeze on the production of 20%-enriched uranium.           Cleveland Jewish News: Negotiate to Keep Iran Free of Nuclear Weapons, feat. NIAC's Jamal Abdi "Our policy of sanctions and isolation runs counter to this. The Khamenei regime thrives on this, " says NIAC's Jamal Abdi. "There is no military solution" to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. "You can't bomb away the knowledge" Iran has on enriching uranium and building a nuclear weapon.             Asia Times: Congress Pushes for War with Iran, feat. NIAC's Jamal Abdi NIAC's Jamal Abdi stated that the motivation may be to "poison those talks by signaling to Iran that the president is weak, domestically isolated, and unable to deliver at the negotiating table because a hawkish congress will overrule him."   "My guess is that the demise of the system is a matter of time — unless there’s a war between Iran and the West, perhaps ignited by Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites." - Nicholas D. Kristof speaking about the Iranian government, The New York Times   Support Diplomacy, Not War with Iran! Tell Congress: No Iran War Authorization June 2012 There are no events in this list.

National Iranian American Council | 1411 K Street NW, Suite 250 | Washington, DC 20005

Change your email preferences

nonprofit software