UPDATES: P5+1 Iran Nuclear Negotiations Resource Center
May 21, 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.*
Congressional Statements
May 19, 2015 –
Senator Robert Mendez made the following statement supporting diplomatic negotiations with Iran:
“A diplomatic breakthrough resulting in a peaceful and verifiable termination of Iran’s nuclear weapons program is the desired outcome of the Obama administration’s negotiations with the international community and Iran.”
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May 18, 2015 –
Senator Angus King made the following statement about the Nuclear Deal:
“We can’t solve all the problems of the region in the current negotiations. The purpose of this potential agreement is to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon. There’s only one thing worse than an Iran that is working to support terrorism and destabilize other regimes – and that is an Iran doing those things while armed with a nuclear weapon.”
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May 17, 2015 –
U. S. Representatives Grace Meng (D-Queens) and Lee Zeldin (R-LI) proposed the following solution to the nuclear issue with Iran:
“The negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program have engendered furious debate in Washington and in capitals across the world. But there are steps outside of the nuclear talks that President Obama can take to help ensure that the United States and its allies are stronger and more secure the day after a deal than they were the day before.”
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Senator Lindsey Graham stated his predictions in response to Iran gaining nuclear weapons:
“To allow this pariah nation to acquire nuclear weapons and the ability to deploy them against us and our allies—and to share them with radical Islamic organizations—would constitute an incalculable threat to our national security and an existential threat to Israel. It would set off a nuclear-arms race that would virtually guarantee a regional war with global implications.”
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May 14, 2015 –
U.S. Representative Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) made the following statement regarding the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015:
“As I have said before, any final agreement must prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and include the most intrusive inspections and access regime we’ve ever seen in order to verify Iran’s compliance. It must address potential military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program and bring about Iran’s full cooperation with U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
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U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) declared the following statement about the Nuclear Deal:
“This is why Congress must have a role in reviewing any potential deal the president cuts with Iran. The American people are worried – and America’s allies are worried – that the White House will do anything to get one. So my colleagues and I have one goal: stop a bad deal. The bipartisan legislation the House passed today is the only way Congress will have that opportunity.”
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Editorials/Op-Ed
George J. Mitchell, Iran nuclear talks strike the right balance: May 18, 2015
“Negotiators from the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany are in the final phase of their effort to reach agreement with Iran. Their goal is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. A nuclear-armed Iran would be a direct threat to Israel and could undermine a half-century of nonproliferation efforts, led by the United States. Although dozens of countries are capable of developing nuclear weapons, only nine have so far chosen to do so. Iran must not be the tenth. There are two ways to achieve that goal: by negotiation or through war.”
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Dr. Michael Makovsky and William Kristol, A Perverse Consequence: May 15, 2015
“Let’s begin by doing something we don’t often do, and that is quoting the /New York Times/ at some length. We do this because David Sanger’s report of Thursday, May 14, makes clear how mistaken are the premises underlying President Obama’s forthcoming Iran deal:
When President Obama began making the case for a deal with Iran that would delay its ability to assemble an atomic weapon, his first argument was that a nuclear-armed Iran would set off a “free-for-all” of proliferation in the Arab world. “It is almost certain that other players in the region would feel it necessary to get their own nuclear weapons,” he said in 2012.”
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David Price, Jan Schakowsky, and Lloyd Doggett, The Hill (printed edition), Why we support diplomacy with Iran: May 14, 2015
“Last week, 151 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent President Obama a letter demonstrating support for his administration’s efforts to negotiate a lasting and verifiable comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran.”
Jamal Abdi and Trita Parsi, The Summer of War or Peace with Iran: May 13, 2015
“This summer, the US Senate will choose between war and peace with Iran. If the right decision is made, Obama’s pending nuclear deal with Iran will be sustained and both a war and an Iranian nuclear bomb will be avoided. If the wrong vote is cast, diplomacy will collapse and the US and Iran will once again be on a path towards a disastrous war that will make the Iraq war look like the cake-walk it was promised to be. The good news is: If Americans speak up in large numbers, the Senate will choose peace.”
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Philip Gordon, The Myth of a ‘Better’ Iran Deal: May 11, 2015
“Consider the following scenario. A Democratic U.S. administration, working closely with key international partners, negotiates a nuclear nonproliferation agreement with an adversarial rogue state. The deal, an imperfect compromise, would lessen the country’s international isolation and provide some economic benefit in exchange for eliminating the means to produce nuclear weapons. A new Congress is then elected whose Republican majority vociferously rejects “rewarding bad behavior” and opposes the deal. It bans the provision of economic assistance unless and until the regime abandons all its nuclear activities and changes its destabilizing behavior in the region. The deal then predictably falls apart, the tightening of U.S. sanctions fails to have the desired effect, the military option proves nonviable, and the rogue state moves forward with its nuclear program, ultimately testing and stockpiling a growing number of nuclear weapons.”
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The Editorial Board, Beyond the Iran Nuclear Deal: May 9, 2015
“President Obama’s meeting with Arab leaders this week is an opportunity to reassure the deeply skeptical Gulf States that America’s engagement and probable nuclear deal with Iran is not a threat but an opportunity for regional stability.”
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James Gibney, Iran Vote Wasn’t a Total Victory for Obama: May 8, 2015
“The Senate’s 98-1 vote in favor of a bill giving Congress a formal review of any U.S. nuclear deal with Iran may be seen as something of a victory for President Barack Obama, whose administration secured several important changes to the original bill. But Congress still managed to insert some provisions that will make the administration’s life difficult, while also potentially shining a harsh light on Iranian behavior.”
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