Campaigns debate relationship with Israel, Iran at TIP briefing

June 18, 2012 3 Comments

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Former Rep. Robert Wexler, President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace; Foreign Policy Advisor, Obama 2012 Campaign

Former Rep. Robert Wexler, President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace; Foreign Policy Advisor, Obama 2012 Campaign

Mary Beth Long, Co-chair of the Romney campaign’s Middle East/North Africa policy working group

Mary Beth Long, Co-chair of the Romney campaign’s Middle East/North Africa policy working group

Washington, June 18 – Advisers to the Romney and Obama campaigns sparred Monday about the American response to the Iranian threat and the U.S.-Israel relationship at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by The Israel Project.

“This administration has gone beyond the call of duty” in strengthening the bilateral relationship, said former Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler, who now heads the non-partisan S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.

Wexler gave several instances he said highlighted the “unprecedented” cooperation between the U.S. and the Israeli government.

Mary Beth Long, a foreign policy adviser to Republican presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, argued that defense department budget cuts could limit America’s ability to pursue its regional interests in the future.

“We need to increase our ability to project credible defensive capabilities into the Middle East,” she said. Long also said the administration was perceived by many of “being more concerned with Israel going to war than Iran than Iran building a nuclear weapon,” a line Romney used when speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Saturday.

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Clinton, Peres address upcoming negotiations with Iran

June 12, 2012 1 Comment

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Hillary Clinton and Shimon Peres - Photo by Natasha Mozgovaya

Hillary Clinton and Shimon Peres – Photo by Natasha Mozgovaya

Washington, June 12 -  The international community has a clear plan for the upcoming negotiations with Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

“There is a unified position being presented that gives Iran, if it is interested in taking a diplomatic way out, a very clear path that would be verifiable and linked to action for action,” she said during a discussion hosted by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institution with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

The P5+1, the six-nation negotiation group comprising of Russia, China, France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States, will take on Iran’s nuclear ambitions in talks scheduled for June 18-19 in Moscow. The meeting was almost derailed by Iran’s rhetoric against the European Union, a lead party to the negotiations.

Peres said Iran aims to dominate the Middle East through its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“In the 21st century, the Iranian leaders want to renew imperialism,” he said. “If Iran will win, the whole Middle East will become the victim.”

Peres is in Washington to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, in a special ceremony to be conducted by President Obama on Wednesday. On Monday, Peres met with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the Pentagon.

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Ros-Lehtinen: Iran, P5+1 talks end without success, making nuclear Iran more likely

May 24, 2012 Leave a comment

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Director

Washington, May 24 - International talks between Tehran and the P5+1 (United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany) on Iran’s nuclear program ended today with no evident progress, although a new meeting is scheduled for next month in Moscow.

“The Iranian regime still hasn’t stopped enriching uranium, hasn’t turned over its enriched uranium stockpiles, and hasn’t let international inspectors into suspected weapons-related testing sites.  In fact, all Iran has agreed to is further talks,” U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

The main issue at the negotiations was Iran’s enrichment of uranium to the 20 percent purity level, which signifies a technical ability to enrich to the military-ready 90 percent level. While details of the talks remain secret, CNN reported that Iran rejected the idea of completely stopping its uranium enrichment as demanded by the United Nations. Highly enriched uranium is used to make nuclear bombs.

Yet the two-day meeting in Baghdad began with Iran’s insistence that rounds of punishing international sanctions be lifted as a pre-condition to any halt in enriching uranium that could be used for a nuclear weapon.

“The P5+1 appear to be offering Iran more concessions, backing away from previous demands on the Iranian regime, and now agreeing to more talks that buy Iran more precious weeks for their centrifuges to spin and race toward a nuclear weapons capability,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “The endless negotiations are helpful only for Iran, no one else.  Only crippling sanctions will stop the nightmare of a nuclear-armed Iran, the world’s leading state-sponsor of global terrorism, from becoming a reality.”

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U.S. Amb. to Israel says U.S. ready for military option for Iran

May 18, 2012 Leave a comment

Ambassador Daniel Shapiro

Ambassador Dan Shapiro

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Editor

Washington, May 18 – Diplomatic work and sanctions may not be enough to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the U.S. ambassador to Israel said on Tuesday.

“We do believe there is time. Some time, not an unlimited amount of time,” Dan Shapiro said during a closed forum with the Israel Bar Association. “But at a certain point, we may have to make a judgment that the diplomacy will not work.”

Speaking just a week before an important round of talks with Tehran in Baghdad, Shapiro said the U.S. has the plans in place to attack Iran if necessary.

Yet he said the U.S. hopes it will not have to resort to military force.

“But that doesn’t mean that option is not fully available. Not just available, but it’s ready,” he said. “The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready.”

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Iran Experts Reiterate Need for Heavier Sanctions

May 17, 2012 Leave a comment

By Melissa Weiss, Staff Writer

Washington, May 17 – Heavier sanctions against Iran could help stop the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon, three experts testified Thursday before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Amb. Mark Wallace, CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), proposed a strategy focusing on four major areas: banking, insurance and reinsurance, disclosure and debarment and shipping (BIDS). As part of BIDS, all companies that conduct business in Iran would be ineligible to receive U.S. government contracts.

Wallace stressed the importance of the United States standing firm on sanctions: “When I challenge businesses around the world and I say we’re going to make public the business [they] do in Iran and [that they’re] not going to do business in the United States…they pull out of Iran, because they want to do business with the biggest country in the world.”

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, agreed. “If we impose a true economic blockade…it will have a dramatic impact,” he said.

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Biden talks Israel, Iran with American Rabbis

May 8, 2012 Leave a comment

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Washington, May 8 – Speaking to a group of Rabbis, Vice President Joe Biden reiterated the administration’s goal is stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and said that containment is not an option.

“Diplomacy backed by serious, serious sanctions and pressure – on that score, the window is closing in the near term,” he said Tuesday.

Speaking in Atlanta to the Rabbinic Assembly, an international body of 1,600 conservative rabbis, Biden rebutted critics who complain that the president has not taken a hard enough stance on Iran, saying the U.S. has led successful efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic.

Yet in the end, he said, the decision to preemptively strike nuclear facilities rested with Israel.

“I would not contract out my security to anybody, even a loyal, loyal, loyal friend like the United States,” he said.

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Clinton lauds India’s efforts to reduce dependence on Iranian oil

May 8, 2012 Leave a comment

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Director

Washington, May 8 – Traveling in New Delhi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said India and the U.S. are united in a goal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and applauded India’s steps to reduce its imports of Iranian oil.

“India has reduced its dependence on Iranian oil. I know their refineries have stopped asking for orders to purchase Iranian oil. So they certainly have taken steps,” Clinton said during an exclusive interview with CNN’s Jill Dougherty. “India shares exactly our goal; their goal is our goal, and that is to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons nation.”

Clinton also urged the Indian government to cut its imports even further to keep pressure on Iran. The U.S. and other Western countries have put pressure on India to reduce its consumption of Iranian oil, as part of efforts of applying economic pressure on Iran’s oil industry.

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Charlie Cook on Iran and the U.S. presidential elections

May 4, 2012 Leave a comment

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Director

Washington, May 4 – National Journals’ Charlie Cook has written an interesting piece on Iran, calling it “the wild card” in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. “A conflict involving Iran doesn’t look as likely as it once did, but it still could upend the presidential race,” Cook says.

An international incident, particularly an attack in the Middle East, could have a huge, but unpredictable, effect on the race between Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. The very real possibility of a clash with Iran, the general political instability in the region, and turmoil in Yemen and the Sudan, have been major factors in the increase in worldwide oil prices. Thus, the international political situation has contributed to the rise of domestic gasoline prices over the past year, with obvious economic and political implications.

Yet Cook also writes that now, “the perceived threat of war is lower, helping to bring gas prices down some.”

We don’t know, though, whether prices will continue to drop in the coming months or stay relatively high until Election Day. The combination of the fourth-warmest winter on record and historically low natural-gas prices has significantly diminished home-heating costs for many Americans this year, and that has worked to offset spiking gasoline prices during the winter months.

So, for now, the threat of major military action in the Middle East before November 6 is less likely than it was just a few months ago. It’s just unclear whether the odds have declined enough to create a peace dividend in the form of lower oil and gasoline prices in the next six months.

Read Cook’s full analysis: Iran, the Wild Card

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Sen. Kerry visits Peres, talks Iran

May 1, 2012 Leave a comment

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Sen. Kerry and President Peres

Sen. Kerry and President Peres

Washington, May 1 – President Obama is committed to stopping Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told Israeli President Shimon Peres at a meeting Tuesday in Jerusalem.

“If I can just say to you and to the people of Israel: I hope there is no doubt about President Obama’s seriousness and commitment that Iran should not have and cannot have a nuclear weapon. The President has made it clear that he is not talking about containment; he is talking about prevention,” a press release after the meeting quoted Kerry as saying to Peres.

As a leader in foreign relations in the Senate, Kerry makes periodical trips to the region. Recent speculation in the media has pointed to the long-time Massachusetts Senator and 2003 Democratic presidential candidate as a possible successor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if Obama were to win a second term.

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Key Republican Senator Talks Syria, Israel, Iran

April 25, 2012 1 Comment

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Washington, April 25 – The downfall of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad would strengthen Israel and improve the prospects for peace, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

“The security of our ally, the strongest and most enduring democracy in the region, Israel, with whom we are bound by the strongest ties of mutual interest and shared values and affection would improve as well. And so would the prospects for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors improve,” Rubio said.

The Republican senator has been touted as a top vice-presidential pick for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney despite his repeated denials of interest. During the speech at the Brookings Institution, he waded into the foreign policy realm as speculation in Washington grows about the possibility of a Romney-Rubio ticket come November.

Syria has been embroiled in 13-months of violence, after demonstrators were attacked by regime forces last March.  The death toll, much of it from Assad forces killing civilians, is estimated to have reached 11,000 by mid-April. A cease-fire is now technically in place, although international monitors have said the regime has not adhered to it.

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