President Obama should engage Iran diplomatically.

President George W. Bush adopted a strategy toward Iran based on trying to threaten, browbeat and sanction Iran into submission. This strategy failed to stop Iran's nuclear program or end its reckless meddling in the region.

Serious, sustained, direct U.S. engagement with Iran is now needed to address the full range of issues on the U.S.-Iran agenda.

 

This issue is too important to wait.

Iran's nuclear program threatens U.S. national interests, including Israel's security.

America has other key interests related to Iran, including human rights, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

 

The domestic upheaval in Iran poses challenges and opportunities.

U.S. policy must be nimble enough to take advantage of any new opportunities that may arise.  Likewise, there may be moments when the best strategy will be to pause and reassess our efforts.

 

Arbitrary deadlines are a mistake.

The effort to impose a deadline on engagement efforts is not helpful to American diplomacy, especially now when the president needs flexibility to respond to developments inside Iran.

The President should be the one to decide if and when diplomacy has run its course. 

Efforts to compel the President to set out a deadline tied to some arbitrary date would seem to disclose less a fear of Iranian delay tactics and more a desire to tie the President's hands with respect to Iran engagement efforts and limit his foreign policy options going forward.

 

The proposed new "crippling" sanctions should be rejected.

A strategy of deliberately inflicting suffering on civilians in order to compel them to put pressure on their government is morally and ethically dubious. 

 

The efficacy of "crippling" sanction is also dubious.  Examples of cases where such sanctions have caused tremendous human suffering but failed to force a change in governmental policy include Iraq, Cuba, Gaza, and, in fact, Iran itself, where decades of U.S. and international sanctions did little to weaken the Iranian regime in the eyes of its people. 

The proposed new sanctions could feed the Iranian government's narrative that the current popular protest is foreign-inspired, giving the Iranian authorities a pretext to further persecute its domestic critics.   Moreover, new sanctions that make the lives of the Iranian people more difficult could provide the government a populist point around which to try to mobilize sympathy.

Sanctions can be a powerful tool for putting pressure on Iran. These sanctions, like those already enacted, need to be targeted against Iran's government and its leaders. 

 

Now is the time to send positive signals to the Iranian people.

For years the US has spoken to Iran and the Iranian people almost exclusively in the language of sanctions and threats. Today, the US should be looking for ways to demonstrate solidarity with the Iranian people.