Fw: Nuclear Iran: Didn't the U.S. Already Try This Strategy in Iraq? - FCNL

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Volk" <joevolk@fcnl.org>
To: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@optonline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 5:22 PM
Subject: Nuclear Iran: Didn't the U.S. Already Try This Strategy in Iraq? -
FCNL

A new "preventive war" is the talk of Washington following the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report released this month It
said that Iran is not disclosing all aspects of its nuclear program and
has not halted uranium enrichment activities. Speeches by the Iranian
president have exacerbated the crisis. The IAEA has found no evidence
of research or diversion of materials toward atomic weapons in Iran.
But Washington still argues that Tehran's concealment of its nuclear
research program makes it untrustworthy to operate a domestic nuclear
fuel cycle -- even for civilian needs. For a detailed analysis see
FCNL's new blog, The Quakers' Colonel at
http://quakerscolonel.blogspot.com/

Last week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote an 18-page letter
to President George W. Bush. The White House immediately dismissed the
Iranian president's letter as a philosophical ploy designed to derail
tough United Nations Security Council action to stop Iran from
expanding its nuclear program.

Yet a group of Iranian scholars suggested during a press conference at
FCNL that the U.S. might be wrong to dismiss the first direct
communication from an Iranian leader to a U.S. president in more than
two decades. This week, Henry Kissinger made the same argument. "If
America is prepared to negotiate with North Korea over proliferation in
the six-party forum, and with Iran in Baghdad over Iraqi security, it
must be possible to devise a multilateral venue for nuclear talks with
Tehran that would permit the United States to participate -- especially
in light of what is at stake," writes Kissinger in a op ed published
in the Washington Post.

*U.S. Rhetoric Toward Iran Sounds Familiar*

President Bush insists that the U.S. is committed to exhausting all
diplomatic options to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
But the U.S. refuses to talk with Iran and the recent history of U.S.
preventive war in Iraq has led some people in the United States and
many people internationally to question U.S. intentions toward Iran
today.

The president's own rhetoric in the last few weeks sounds very similar
to statements just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Asked about how
the U.S. will stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, Bush responded:
"The first option and the most important option is diplomacy. As
you know, I've made the tough decision to commit American troops into
harm's way," Bush told an audience in Florida last week.
"It's the toughest decision a president can ever make. But I want
you to know that I tried diplomacy. In other words, the president has
got to be able to say to the American people diplomacy didn't
work." Our own view is that the "coercive diplomacy" of this
administration has failed, and that the administration should now try
smart diplomacy as the alternative, not so-called preventive war.

White House officials argue that a credible threat is necessary to
force Iran to comply. The United States is pressing for a UN Security
Council resolution sanctioning Iran for re-starting its uranium
enrichment program. But, in early May, both China and Russia declined
to endorse a condemnation under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. Over the
next one to two weeks, the European Union - 3 (Britain, France, and
Germany) is putting together a new packet of "carrots and sticks" to
entice Iran to reconsider its defiance and accept international control
of the fuel rods necessary to run its Russian-built reactor.

The U.S. is backing the EU-3's efforts. But the administration's
insistence that "all options are on the table" is escalating
tensions between two countries, whose leaders do not understand each
other, have a long history of hostility that occasionally boils over
into violence, and have almost no diplomatic relations. But as the
case of Iraq clearly demonstrates, war is not the answer. As military
analysts note, should the U.S. launch military action against Iran, the
130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq would be in immediate danger. "This is
a dangerous game of chicken," warns Ahmad Sadri, a scholar who
coordinated 200 academics, experts and former government officials to
sign a letter warning the administration of the dire consequence of
U.S. military action against Iran.

*Congressional Debate on Iran*

FCNL urges policy makers to exercise caution in the matter of
imposing sanctions on Iran. As imposed on Iraq in the 1990s, the
economic sanctions exacted a devastating effect on masses of innocent
civilians and weakened any internal critics of the Iraqi regime. The
effects of those economic sanctions would almost certainly would have
risen to the level of war crimes had they been judged by the rules of
war, which prohibit the targeting of civilians. The U.S. should not
risk a similar outcome in Iran.

Many members of Congress embrace the calls for sanctions and support
the president's characterization of Iran as part of an "axis of
evil" in the world. But some seasoned members of Congress are
offering a different view. Sen. Richard Lugar (IN) warned in April
against imposing sanctions on Iran and called for talks between the
U.S. and Iran. This view resonated with Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE), who
argued in an editorial last week "any lasting solution to the Iranian
nuclear threat has to address the broader interest of Iran, the US, the
region and the world." FCNL has learned that several senators are
considering initiatives to encourage face-to-face negotiations between
the U.S. and Iran.

We at FCNL believe the that the U.S. ought to engage Iran bilaterally
and through the UN and other multilateral venues to develop and
implement procedures for safeguarding fissile materials, while
permitting Iran to develop peaceful nuclear energy programs in
accordance with the provisions of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
War is not the answer.

Read the web log entry, "Iranian Democracy in the 20th
Century" at
http://quakerscolonel.blogspot.com/2006/05/iranian-democracy-in-20th-century.html

For more information on Iran see our web site
athttp://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=123

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