A skeptic urges: Give Iran talks time
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democratic
congressman from California, is a senior member of the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the State and Foreign
Operations Appropriations Subcommittee.
For much of the past decade, Iran's nuclear weapons development program has been one of the top national security concerns for the United States. Even as we fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and hunted down al Qaeda's leaders, American intelligence officers, military and top diplomats have been working round the clock to prevent Iran from developing the bomb.
For much of the past decade, Iran's nuclear weapons development program has been one of the top national security concerns for the United States. Even as we fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and hunted down al Qaeda's leaders, American intelligence officers, military and top diplomats have been working round the clock to prevent Iran from developing the bomb.
An Iran armed with
nuclear weapons, capable of threatening Israel and other regional
states, would touch off a nuclear arms race in the world's most volatile
region. It would be an unmitigated disaster. We must make all efforts
to prevent this.
For this reason, I have
pressed for ever-tightening sanctions to isolate Iran from the global
economy and have supported a policy that leaves all options on the
table, including military force. The stakes are simply too high to risk
any miscalculation of our resolve by Iran's leaders.
Rep. Adam Schiff
In pushing for ever more
punitive sanctions, we held out the hope that by increasing the economic
pressure enough, we might be able to force Iran to give up its nuclear
weapons ambition and rejoin the community of nations. Now, we are at a
moment in the standoff with Tehran that will test that assumption.
Opinion: Why Israel, Gulf states are wary of Iran nuclear talks
In repeated statements
since his election as Iran's new president in June, President Hassan
Rouhani expressed interest in exploring a negotiated end to the
sanctions in exchange for walking back its nuclear program and a
verifiable inspections to ensure compliance. The just-concluded Geneva
meeting, though unsuccessful in achieving a breakthrough on an interim
deal, reportedly came close. The Iranians and the P5+1 group will be
reconvening there this week for a second round.
In the meantime, there
have been calls for the Senate to continue work on a new round of
sanctions that was passed by the House with my support earlier this
year. Advocates of this approach say that sanctions brought us to this
point and passage of a new round of sanctions during the negotiations
will improve the likelihood of success at the bargaining table.
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