UPDATES: P5+1 Iran Nuclear Negotiations Resource Center
March 6, 2015, Washington, D.C. – Like much of the world, Iranian Americans have followed the Iran nuclear negotiations and ensuing developments with great interest. The PAAIA Public Policy Center is pleased to provide a resource page that provides easily accessible information about the on–going nuclear negotiations between Iran and the members of the P5+1 (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany).
The resource page includes a compilation of information provided by the U.S. government on the negotiations as well as viewpoints from members of Congress, editorials from leading news sources, and analyses from foreign policy and national security experts.
While PAAIA supports efforts to pursue a diplomatic resolution to the decade-long stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program, we recognize the importance of ensuring that Iranian Americans are well informed and aware of the positions held by their elected officials and others related to this matter.
Set forth below is a collection of the most recent updates to the P5+1 Iran Nuclear Negotiations Resource Center.
**The views expressed in these articles are solely the views of author or the interviewee, and should not be attributed to the views of PAAIA. **
Administration Statements
March 4, 2015 –
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes made the following statement:
“The purpose of the agreement is not to bet on the notion that Iran will moderate. The purpose of the agreement is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon throughout the duration of the agreement.”
March 3, 2015 –
U.S. President Barack Obama made the following statement:
“We don’t yet have a deal. It may be that Iran cannot say yes to a good deal. I have repeatedly said that I would rather have no deal than a bad deal. But if we are successful negotiating, then in fact this will be the best deal possible to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Nothing else comes close.”
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March 2, 2015 –
U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice made the following statement:
“We must understand what will happen if these negotiations collapse. I know that some argue we should just impose sanctions and walk away. But let’s remember that sanctions have never stopped Iran from advancing its program.”
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Congressional Statements
March 5, 2015 –
U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) made the following statement in regards to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act:
“The strongest signal we can send to the U.S. negotiators is having a veto-proof majority in support of Congress weighing in on any final nuclear deal with Iran.”
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March 4, 2015 –
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) released the following statement in regards to the Iran Congressional Oversight Act:
“I am proud of this bill because it will ensure that if there is a nuclear deal and if Iran violates it, there will be immediate action by Congress to reinstate sanctions and consider even tougher penalties against Iran.”
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U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) made the following statement in regards to the Iran Congressional Oversight Act:
“The Iran Congressional Oversight Act ensures appropriate oversight of any nuclear agreement with Iran and sends a signal that we stand ready to swiftly re-impose sanctions if Iran violates an agreement. I urge my colleagues to support this bill as it does not undermine ongoing diplomacy.”
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March 3, 2015 –
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) made the following statement in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“President Obama has made it clear that the purpose of the P5+1 negotiations is to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. We all agree on that goal. Were it not for the President’s efforts we would not have this international coalition imposing the sanctions on Iran that brought them to the table in the first place. These negotiations and the peaceful resolution we hope they yield must be given a chance to succeed.”
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U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the following statement in regards to fast-tracking Iran legislation:
“We think the timing is important. We think it will help the administration from entering into a bad deal. But if they do, it will provide an opportunity for Congress to weigh in,” McConnell said Tuesday.”
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U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) made the following statement in regards to Senator McConnell’s move to fast-track Iran legislation:
”There is no emergency; this deal — if there is one — won’t be concluded until almost summer. Let’s do this the right way. If this is the process, then I will have no choice but to use my voice and vote against any motion to proceed to the bill.”
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U.S. Senator Chris Murphey (D-CT) made the following statement in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“When you look at alternatives to negotiations with Iran, options are grim. We must give diplomacy a chance to work.”
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U.S. Senator Harry Reed (D-NV) made the following statement to in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“President Obama has made it clear that a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable and I could not agree more. I believe that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon through tough, smart diplomacy is the best option. We should provide time and space for the negotiations currently underway to play out. But all options must remain on the table to deal with Iran if talks fail.”
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U.S. Representative John Boehner (R-OH-8) made the following statement in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“This was a speech the American people needed to hear, plain and simple. It addressed the gravity of the threats we face and why we cannot allow a nuclear Iran, or any semblance of a path to a nuclear Iran. It demonstrated why there is such deep-seated – and bipartisan – concern about the deal that is being made.”
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U.S. Representative Llyod Dogget (D-TX-35) made the follow statement in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“The only alternative he offers is the complete and total surrender by Iran. That’s not going to happen. He was wrong about Iraq. He was wrong about the interim agreement. And he’s wrong now. There is no agreement this administration could reach with Iran that would be good enough for him.”
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U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) made the following statement in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech – saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.”
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U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1) made the following statement in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“My biggest concern is that the speech undermines the ongoing work of our President and his administration to reach a deal with Iran that keeps them from obtaining nuclear capability.”
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U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA-28) made the following statement in regards to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
“We must consider the consequences of a failure to reach an agreement and whether there is a plausible alternative to military action. My own belief is that in the absence of an agreement, Iran will again begin to enrich to 20% and beyond, bringing on a new line of faster and more efficient centrifuges. Congress will pass – with my support – a new set of even more stringent sanctions and we will work to keep the international community behind them. From here, it may be a race for time between increased pressure on Iran and the possibility it brings that country back to the negotiating table, and crossing a red line that brings Israel, the US or both, to war.”
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Editorials/Op-Eds
Keep Congress Out of the Iran Talks – Editors of Bloombergview: March 5, 2015
“In the afterglow of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fiery speech to Congress, the Republican-controlled Senate is feeling its oats on foreign policy. Senators should be careful not to undermine President Barack Obama’s negotiations with Iran.”
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The Negotiating Endgame in Iran – Michael Krepon: March 2, 2015
“The negotiating end game with Iran is upon us. The Obama administration had no choice but to hold fast to the March 31st deadline, allowing further time only to add detail if an agreed framework can be reached. Restiveness on Capitol Hill is growing and Republican support is hard to detect. Extending these talks once again would whip up stronger opposition in Congress without providing any additional leverage on Iran’s Supreme Leader to make concessions.”
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Missing the point on Iran’s nuclear breakout time – Ali Vaez: March 2, 2015
“One reason for the urgency behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial speech to Congress on Tuesday is the fact that a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers is reportedly taking shape in Switzerland. The parameters of the agreement under discussion — and, indeed, of any deal that can plausibly be reached right now —will leave Iran with infrastructure that could potentially be repurposed toward weaponization.”
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Going nuclear over Iran – The Washington Post Editorial Board: February 28, 2015
“There are legitimate reasons for concern about the accord the Obama administration is negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program. The latest U.S. offer would allow Iran to keep a large nuclear infrastructure, and all controls reportedly would lapse in 10 to 15 years even if the regime in Tehran did not alter its extremist ideology or its attempts to dominate the region. It’s to be expected that Israel, which continues to be the target of genocidal rhetoric by Iran’s supreme leader, would argue in Washington for tougher terms.”
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Get over it: There’s no better deal coming on Iran’s nuclear program – Paul R. Pillar: February 25, 2015
“The best chance to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains peaceful is imperiled because of mistaken notions about what real alternatives the West has. There certainly is an agreement to be had that is consistent with the preliminary accord, known as the Joint Plan of Action, reached more than a year ago. This plan placed major restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and subjected it to an unprecedented degree of monitoring.”
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Let’s Make the Deal with Iran – William J. Perry, Sean O’Keefe, Adm, James Stavridis and Joe R. Reeder: February 24, 2015
”America is the safest when its leaders work together to effectively meet national security and foreign policy challenges. Yet partisan infighting threatens to upend our nation’s best chance to stem the very real Iranian nuclear threat. The latest round of negotiations has the United States and Iran mulling a nuclear agreement that would prevent Tehran from amassing enough material to make a bomb for at least 10 years.”
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A compelling argument on Iran – David Ignatius: February 24, 2015
“Prussian King Frederick the Great offered this rebuke to those who refused to allow any concessions: “If you try to hold everything, you hold nothing.” President Obama might make a similar retort to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attack on the alleged “bad deal” the United States is contemplating with Iran. Netanyahu rejects any concessions that allow Iran to enrich uranium; he thinks the U.S. goal of a one-year “breakout” period before Iran could build a bomb isn’t enough.”
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The key to a nuclear agreement with Iran? The window of vulnerability – Ilan Goldenberg: February 23, 2015
“For the past year, the debate on Iran’s nuclear program has focused far too much on the various technical components without examining the sum of its parts. The objective for the United States in the negotiations should not be focused on any one component (e.g. centrifuge numbers), but instead on obtaining an agreement that creates the conditions that will deter Iran from ever trying an overt or covert breakout to a nuclear weapon.”
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A Credibility Gap – Fred Hiatt: February 22, 2015
“Can President Obama sell an Iran deal at home? If his negotiators strike an agreement next month, we already know that it will be far from ideal: Rather than eradicating Iran’s nuclear-weapons potential, as once was hoped, a pact would seek to control Iran’s activities for some limited number of years.”
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Iran ready for a nuclear deal – Hossein Mousavian: USA Today: February 6, 2015
“In January, Iran and major powers ended five days of nuclear talks in Geneva and Paris, including lengthy meetings between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Negotiators made “limited progress” at nuclear talks, agreed to step up efforts and meet in February. As it appears, things are moving, and the chances for clinching a final deal look fairly good. But, only if the two sides can successfully resolve the two key remaining points of contention: Iran’s enrichment capacity and the timetable for lifting sanctions.”
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Now’s not time for more Iran sanctions – Richard Nephew: February 6, 2015
“Some members of the U.S. Congress may be resisting proposed new sanctions on Iran, but their opposition doesn’t seem likely to stop Congress passing legislation on Tehran’s nuclear program by the end of March. As one of the negotiators who sat across the table from the Iranians for the past 15 months, though, I can assure you that legislation at this juncture risks undermining a deal that is clearly in the interest of all parties.”
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More Recklessness from the Washington Post Editorial Page – Paul Pillar: February 6, 2015
“James Carden and Jacob Heilbrunn provided in the current issue of The National Interest an extensively documented review of how the ever-more-neocon editorial page of the Washington Post “responds to dangerous and complex problems with simplistic prescriptions.” The Post’s most recent editorial about the nuclear negotiations with Iran is firmly in that same simplistic, destructive tradition.”
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Why the White House Is Getting Lonelier on Iran – Walter Russell Mead: February 6, 2015.
“Suddenly, we seem to be having the conversation the administration didn’t want to have: a conversation about just where President Obama’s approach to Iran is taking us. A Washington Post editorial has put the issue on the agenda in a way that it will be hard for the spinners and Iran-apologists to dance past, and there are signs that bipartisan concerns are beginning to grow.”
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The Senate and Iran’s Bomb – The Wall Street Journal: February 6, 2015
“The ghost of Scoop Jackson is hovering over the Obama Administration’s troubles with the Senate and its nuclear negotiations with Iran. Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, a respected national-security Democrat from Washington state, was often a thorn in the side of Presidents who were negotiating arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union in the 1970s. President Obama wishes Senate critics such as Democrat Robert Menendez and Republican Corker would simply get their noses out of the deal. This President needs a history lesson: Senate involvement in arms-control agreements goes back at least 50 years.”
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The emerging Iran nuclear deal raises major concerns – The Washington Post Editorial Board: February 5, 2015
“AS THE Obama administration pushes to complete a nuclear accord with Iran, numerous members of Congress, former secretaries of state and officials of allied governments are expressing concern about the contours of the emerging deal. Though we have long supported negotiations with Iran as well as the interim agreement the United States and its allies struck with Tehran, we share several of those concerns and believe they deserve more debate now — before negotiators present the world with a fait accompli.”
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