Instead of vowing to reject new sanctions on Iran, President Barack Obama should be using the threat of additional economic punishments coming from Congress to persuade the Tehran government to abandon its nuclear weapons program, says a U.S.-based Iranian dissident.
Even some Obama allies have argued that Congress, by pushing for extra sanctions, is handing the administration a valuable card to play in nuclear talks, Alireza Jafarzadeh of The National Council of Resistance of Iran told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV Wednesday.
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But the president told lawmakers on Tuesday night to butt out, in so many words, and promised to toss back an Iran sanctions package if Congress sends him one — one of several veto threats the president issued on various policy fronts in the annual State of the Union address.
Jafarzadeh said that Obama should instead be holding the congressional threat over Iran to get
the stalled talks back on track.
Critics of the delay fear Iran is using the impasse to secretly enrich more weapons-grade plutonium and conduct secret tests.
"Remember, these talks were supposed to be six months, and it's been a year and half," said Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the U.S. Representative Office for the resistance council, which functions as a parliament in exile.
"[Deputy Secretary of State] Tony Blinken hinted that they might actually extend [talks] again if it's necessary," he said. "Congress is saying, 'Where's the end?' and 'We need to close it.' These sanctions help close the loop and give the leverage to the president."
But the president doesn't appear to see congressional involvement that way — perhaps because he is getting bad advice, said Jafarzadeh.
The administration seems to think that more concessions and a softer touch in dealing with Iran will lead to a deal that is acceptable and enforceable, said Jafarzadeh.
"In reality, knowing the mentality of the Mullahs ruling Iran over the past 35 years, the way they have operated is exactly the opposite," he said.
"The only way you can get them to comply with their international commitments is by decisiveness," said Jafarzadeh. "It was the sanctions that actually brought them to the negotiating table, not talking to them softly or giving them concessions."
Meanwhile, he said, it is difficult to know how far along Iran is in its quest to build the bomb.
"The International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] has had no access to the suspected sites where they are conducting high-explosive tests and other tests that are necessary for building the bomb," said Jafarzadeh. "There are two other major nuclear sites that have been off limits to the IAEA; there's no prospect for them to have access to them.
"And then comes the delivery system," he said. "The missile program that Iran has that is extremely advanced. That hasn't even been talked about. That's why I'm thinking, how in the world can we have a guarantee that Iran is not building a bomb when you have no way of verifying things on the ground?"