Israel Matzav

Former diplomat: 'Sanctions aren't working against Iran, so let's try a little love'

Former American diplomat Ryan Crocker is among 35 former diplomats urging the Obama administration to stop with the sanctions and make more concessions to Iran.

Tougher sanctions won't persuade Tehran to stop enriching uranium, Crocker contends. Instead, he says, Obama should step up diplomacy and consider concessions to the mullahs.

"Sanctions are easy to do, and afterwards we can tell ourselves that, 'By God, we've really stuck it to them,'" Crocker said in an interview. "But it seems to me that the more you press this regime, the more they dig in."

Crocker is among 35 high-powered foreign policy and intelligence veterans, some with extensive Middle East experience, who are pushing the White House and Congress to change course to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.

The bipartisan group, which calls itself the Iran Project, includes former Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former U.S. ambassador to Russia Thomas Pickering and veteran diplomat James Dobbins, who recently rejoined government as Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Crocker and the group aren't urging that sanctions be immediately dropped. By choking off trade in key technologies, he said, they have slowed Iran's nuclear program and its military modernization. At the same time, they argue, a hard line in and of itself won't work.

The LA Times Paul Richter predicts that Congress and Israel won't agree.

If the administration did offer concessions, it would risk a clash with Congress and with Israel, which don't want to ease pressure until Tehran commits to irrevocable curbs on its nuclear program.

As he began the markup this month on a new sanctions bill that already had 340 cosponsors, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was unyielding. "We attack Iran's oil exports, crimp its access to overseas cash, and hit its brutal leaders," he said. The committee later passed the bill unanimously.

Crocker - probably unlike some of the other people backing giving the mullahs some love - is not a complete fool.

In [Crocker's] view, history shows that Tehran won't yield to anything less than the all-out war it faced from Iraq in the 1980s. But Iranian authorities, he argues, may be open to compromise if they see it in their interest.

The reason the sanctions aren't working isn't because the sanctions are wrong. It's because no one believes that the Obama administration will go to all-out war - or any military action - over this.  Even if Iran believed the Obama administration is willing to go to war over its nuclear program, sanctions might not work. But without that belief they have no chance

In the meantime, the clock is ticking.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Ryan Crocker

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:45 PM