Onetime Obama Advisers Warn White House on Iran Nuclear Talks By Jay Solomon
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10007111583511843695404581068583706220382
Foreign-policy strategists say they would oppose agreement if certain tough terms weren’t included
WASHINGTON—A group of influential U.S. foreign-policy strategists, including five former confidants of President Barack Obama, warned the White House Wednesday they would oppose a nuclear agreement with Iran if tough terms weren’t included in a final agreement.
Among the requirements identified by the former diplomats, military officers and lawmakers were intrusive snap inspections of Iran’s nuclear and military sites, a resolution of questions surrounding secretly developed nuclear-weapons technologies and a phased reduction of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The group also called on the White House, in a public statement, to make clear to Iran the U.S. would use military force if Tehran moved to assemble the materials and technologies for a nuclear weapon.
“The United States must go on record now that it is committed to using all means necessary, including military force, to prevent this,” said the statement, which was released under the auspices of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S. think tank considered to be pro-Israel.
The former officials added: “We fear that the current negotiations, unless concluded along the lines outlined in this paper and buttressed by a resolute regional strategy, may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ’good’ agreement.”
Among the signatories were some of Mr. Obama’s closest foreign-policy advisers from his first term, including Dennis Ross, a White House Middle East strategist; David Petraeus, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency; and Gary Samore, once the National Security Council’s nonproliferation czar.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top adviser on nuclear proliferation issues, Robert Einhorn, also signed the statement, as did retired Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011.
The statement could increase pressure on Mr. Obama at a sensitive time in the negotiations with Iran.
The U.S. and its international negotiating partners have set a June 30 deadline to conclude a deal with Iran that seeks to curb its nuclear capabilities in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions. Mr. Obama has sited the Iran diplomacy as one of his signature foreign-policy initiatives.
Iran’s most powerful political figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, however, on Tuesday rejected many of the toughest terms laid out by the U.S. in recent months.
The 75-year-old cleric specifically ruled out snap inspections of Iran’s military sites and said financial and economic sanctions on Tehran must be lifted at the time of any agreement’s signing.
“The economic, financial and banking sanctions…should be lifted immediately when the agreement is signed,” Mr. Khamenei said in a nationally televised speech, apparently breaking from the parameters of a tentative deal signed in April.
Senior Obama administration officials denied on Wednesday the statement released by the U.S. luminaries marked any rift between Mr. Obama and some of his former advisers. They said the terms outlined in the public statement largely matched the White House’s position on the Iran diplomacy.
Secretary of State John Kerry departs Friday to Vienna to try to complete an agreement by the June 30th deadline. Senior U.S. officials have hinted in recent days that the talks could be extended.
“I look forward to finding out whether or not…we have an agreement that is not just any agreement, but the agreement that the world deserves and that is needed in order to guarantee that this is a peaceful program,” he said.
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