WarSclerotic

Kerry’s ’emotional appeal’ against sanctions flops | The Times of Israel.

Republican senator reportedly calls presentation on Iran talks ‘anti-Israeli’; aide says Kerry told senators to ignore Israelis

By Times of Israel staff November 14, 2013, 2:34 am

Republicans were left unconvinced after US Secretary of State John Kerry’s closed-door presentation to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, which was aimed at delaying a new round of sanctions against Iran.

“It was an emotional appeal,” committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker said, according to the US-based media outlet BuzzFeed. “I have to tell you I was very disappointed in the presentation.”

He said that the briefings by Kerry, Vice President Joe Biden and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman provided no details of a deal being considered in talks between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 in Geneva this month.

“I am stunned that in a classified setting when you’re trying to talk to the very folks that would be originating legislation relative to sanctions, to have such a lack of specificity,” BuzzFeed reported Corker as saying.

Sen. Mark Kirk called the officials’ presentation “very unconvincing,” and added that it was “fairly anti-Israeli.”

“I was supposed to disbelieve everything the Israelis had just told me, and I think the Israelis probably have a pretty good intelligence service.”

The BuzzFeed report cited a Senate aide who said that “every time anybody would say anything about what would the Israelis say they’d get cut off and Kerry would say ‘you have to ignore what they’re telling you, stop listening to the Israelis on this.’”

Kerry warned the committee Wednesday against hurting a historic opportunity for a nuclear pact with Iran by pressing ahead with new sanctions while international negotiators seek to prevent Tehran from being able to assemble an atomic weapons arsenal.

Kerry said the United States and other world powers are united behind an offer they presented to Iranian negotiators in Geneva last week. But he said new action now from US lawmakers could shatter an international coalition made up of countries with interests as divergent as France, Russia and China, endangering hopes for a peaceful end to the decade-long nuclear standoff with the Islamic republic.

The countries worry that Tehran is trying to assemble an atomic weapons arsenal. Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful energy production and medical research.

“We put these sanctions in place in order to be able to put us in the strongest position possible to be able to negotiate. We now are negotiating,” Kerry told reporters ahead of testifying before the Senate Banking Committee. “And the risk is that if Congress were to unilaterally move to raise sanctions, it could break faith in those negotiations, and actually stop them and break them apart.”

With nuclear negotiations set to resume in Switzerland next week, the Obama administration dispatched Kerry and Biden to Congress on Wednesday to seek more time for diplomacy. They faced skepticism from members of Congress determined to further squeeze the Iranian economy and wary of yielding any ground to Iran in the talks.

Kerry said the negotiators should have a ‘few weeks’ more to see if they can reach an agreement.

The request faces sharp resistance from members of Congress determined to further squeeze the Iranian economy and wary of yielding any ground to Iran in the talks.

“The Iranian regime hasn’t paused its nuclear program,” said Rep. Ed Royce, a Republican and House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman. “Why should we pause our sanctions efforts as the administration is pressuring Congress to do?”

Kerry said the potential accord with Iran relates to a “tough proposal,” adding: If it weren’t strong, why wouldn’t Iran have accepted t yet?’

Kerry said,” What we are asking everyone to do is calm down, look hard at what can be achieved and what the realities are. If this doesn’t work, we reserve the right to dial back the sanctions. I will be up here on the Hill asking for increased sanctions, and we always reserve the military option. So we lose absolutely nothing, except for getting in the way of diplomacy and letting it work.”

Last week’s talks broke down as Iran demanded formal recognition of what it calls its right to enrich uranium, and as France sought stricter limits on Iran’s ability to make nuclear fuel and on its heavy water reactor to produce plutonium, diplomats said.

The new sanctions were overwhelmingly approved by the Republican-led House in July. The legislation blacklisted Iran’s mining and construction sectors and committed the US to the goal of eliminating all Iranian oil exports worldwide by 2015. If the Senate Banking Committee pushes off its parallel bill any longer, lawmakers could attach it to a Senate defense bill which could come up for debate as early as Thursday.

In a rare public appearance on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that if negotiations with Iran fall apart, it could ignite a war in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is doing everything he can to make the Iranian nuclear negotiations [in Geneva] with the P5+1 countries fail,” Nasrallah claimed.

The terror chief further accused the prime minister of “pushing for war” and of becoming a “spokesperson for several Arab countries” who are also “acting similarly to Israel and rejecting a political solution in Syria and any international accord with Iran.”

“Israel wants the US to attack Syria, Afghanistan and Iran to preserve its security,” he added.

“To all Arab peoples in the Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Oman: What is the alternative to an understanding between Iran and world leaders? It is regional war,” Nasrallah warned.

But, he went on, “any accord that prevents a war in the region is rejected by Israel.”

An Israeli government official said Wednesday that Israel is not opposed to an interim deal with Iran if it entails the complete cessation of uranium enrichment.

“We’re not a priori opposed to an interim deal. I heard [Netanyahu] say that many times,” the official told The Times of Israel, insisting on anonymity. However, he added, in any such deal, Tehran would not be allowed to continue enriching any uranium, not even to a low degree, and would receive in return a suspension of further sanctions, while all existing sanctions would remain in place.

White House plea to halt new Iran sanctions fails to sway US lawmakers | JPost | Israel News.

By REUTERS

11/14/2013 03:52

US Senate Banking Committee members express mixed reactions to Obama administration’s call to delay new measures on Islamic Republic as nuclear talks between Tehran, world powers continue.

Senior US lawmakers expressed sharp frustration with the Obama administration’s call to delay new sanctions against Iran on Wednesday, underscoring the difficult sales job the Democratic president has as he pursues a rapprochement with Tehran.

Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and other top officials visited Capitol Hill to warn senators that implementing the new measures could scuttle delicate talks between Iran and world powers over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“The risk is that if Congress were to unilaterally move to raise sanctions it could break faith in those negotiations and actually stop them and break them apart,” Kerry told reporters before the closed-door briefing.

But some key lawmakers said after the meeting that they had not been convinced.

“It was a very unsatisfying briefing,” said Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

However, Corker, also a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the sanctions measures, said he had not yet made up his mind about whether they should go ahead now.

Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, the banking committee’s chairman, said he was still undecided about whether to go ahead.

Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat who is chairman of the foreign relations committee and a member of the banking committee, still wants the new sanctions, a spokesman said after the briefing.

President Barack Obama’s administration wants a “temporary pause” on new sanctions on Iran to allow diplomats from the United States and five other world powers to negotiate with Tehran and test whether it might be possible to resolve a decade-long standoff over its nuclear program.

“We have the unity of the P5+1, Germany, Great Britain, France … and Russia, China and the United States are all agreed on this proposal that’s on the table,” Kerry said.

“If all of a sudden sanctions were to be increased, there are members of that coalition who have put it in place who would think that we are dealing in bad faith, and they would bolt. And then the sanctions would fall apart,” he said.

But Obama’s diplomacy with Iran has been greeted with skepticism from many quarters, including US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as among Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, adding a new element to the White House’s diplomatic calculations.

Negotiators failed to reach an agreement during weekend talks in Geneva. A new round of talks starts on November 20.

Western nations fear that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, while Tehran says it is purely peaceful. But Iran’s refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work has drawn tough sanctions targeting the oil exports that are its lifeblood.

CONGRESS MORE HAWKISH ON IRAN THAN WHITE HOUSE

The package of even tighter sanctions has been making its way through Congress, where lawmakers, including many of Obama’s fellow Democrats, generally take a harder line on Iran than the administration.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed its bill on July 31, just days before Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, took office. Rouhani was elected in June on a platform of conciliation, saying he wanted to ease Iran’s international isolation.

Senators have been debating behind closed doors their version of the bill, which could slash Iran’s oil exports to no more than 500,000 barrels per day and reduce the ability of the Obama administration to waive sanctions.

Although Congress has no power to stop the negotiation process, passage of the new sanctions could make things more difficult for Iranian negotiators trying to make the case for concessions to the West, said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East peace negotiator who is now a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

More sanctions from Congress could be taken as a sign that Americans want confrontation, not cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

“It would send an unmistakable signal that he’s (Obama’s) going to have a hard time selling this agreement,” Miller said. “It’s going to create huge domestic constraints for those in Iran … who presumably want to reach a negotiated settlement and want to see sanctions lifted.”

International oil companies also worry that stricter US sanctions could harm their business with Iran, a factor that could damage consensus in the talks.

However the banking committee acts, some senators said they might sidestep the panel and insert a tough new Iran sanctions measure into the annual defense authorization bill, which Obama would find hard to veto.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that was one possible route for new sanctions. He dismissed Kerry’s assertion that new sanctions would torpedo the Geneva talks.

“I don’t buy that one bit quite frankly. What got us here is the sanctions,” he said. “We should stop their enrichment, we should freeze and begin to dismantle these centrifuges before you inject cash” into the Iranian economy, he said.

But it was not immediately clear that any such effort could win enough support in the Democratic-controlled Senate to move ahead.