PRESS RELEASE

Senior Policy Experts Say:
No More Sanctions on Iran!

Jan. 7, 2014 (EIRNS)—A bipartisan group of nine senior policy experts had a letter delivered January 6 to the co-sponsors of the sanctions-pushing, anti-Iran Nuclear Weapon Free Act of 2013, calling upon the Senators to cease and desist.

The sanctions bill, S. 1881, introduced by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), would "add more sanctions on Iran and purchasers of its oil, as well as position the U.S. to support Israel militarily, economically and diplomatically, if they decide to take military action against Iran," the Iran Project, which released the letter, explains. All that before the P5+1 negotiations have concluded.

"The bill will threaten the prospects for success in the current negotiations and thus present us and our friends with a stark choice: military action or living with a nuclear Iran," the letter states. "A military strike would not eliminate Iran's nuclear capacity and may result in the very thing the U.S. hopes to prevent: Iran deciding to seek nuclear weapons."

The nine signators—former Ambassadors Ryan Crocker, Daniel Kurtzer, and William Luers; former Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering; former Undersecretary of Defense Frank Wisner; Rockefeller Brothers Fund President Stephen Heintz; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace President Jessica Tuchman Mathews; former National Intelligence Officer Paul Pillar; and MIT professor Jim Walsh—diplomatically offer the Senate co-sponsors "a way out" from a bill, which whether they know it or not, or even care, could trigger a thermonuclear World War III.

The current P5+1 negotiations are "the best opportunity in decades" to reach a peaceful solution, the experts explain. "Based on our experience, born of years of dealing with Iran, we do not believe the Iranians will continue to negotiate under new or increased threats.... Moreover, our other negotiating partners (U.K., France, Germany, Russia, and China) would be displeased, and would conclude that the U.S. is no longer proceeding in good faith.... This bill could lead to an unraveling of the sanctions regime that the U.S. and its partners have so patiently built....

"We urge you to take a second look at this legislation, accept that you have achieved your objective of putting down a marker for Iran, but not press this bill to a vote. You do not sacrifice any of your options by doing so. Negotiators now need a chance to continue to their work. We ask that you stand up firmly for the interests of the United States, as you always have, and allow the negotiations to proceed."