President Barack Obama (op-ed): How diplomacy can prevent a nuclear Iran
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150818-president-barack-obama-how-diplomacy-can-prevent-a-nuclear-iran.ece
By Barack Obama
18 August, 2015
At the height of the Cold War, with Soviet warheads pointed at all of America’s major cities, President Kennedy rejected calls to hasten a confrontation many saw as inevitable. He argued instead that strong and principled American leadership was the surest path to a peace “based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions — on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements.”
For decades, Democratic and Republican presidents alike built on this foundation, forging arms control agreements and other international treaties, and ultimately winning the Cold War without firing a shot at the Soviets.
In that tradition of strong, principled diplomacy, my administration has sought to remove one of the greatest threats facing our world today: the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. After two years of negotiations, we have achieved an arrangement that permanently prohibits Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. It cuts off every one of Iran’s pathways to a bomb and provides the most comprehensive inspection and verification regime ever negotiated to monitor a nuclear program.
This deal does not solve all our problems with Iran. The Iranian regime is dangerous and repressive. It supports terrorist organizations, violates the human rights of its own people, and threatens the security of our partners in the region, including our ally Israel. We will continue to counter Iran’s destabilizing activities and insist that the Americans unjustly detained in Iran be released. But this deal achieves one of our most critical security objectives: preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear bomb.
Under this deal, Iran cannot acquire the plutonium or the enriched uranium it would need for a bomb. It provides round-the-clock monitoring of Iran’s declared nuclear facilities, and inspectors will have access to Iran’s entire nuclear supply chain. If a site raises suspicion anywhere in Iran, inspectors will be able to gain access to it. We will be able to detect any attempt Iran might make to gain a nuclear weapon through covert channels.
Furthermore, before Iran gets any new relief from sanctions, it will have to take significant, concrete steps to roll back its nuclear program, like removing centrifuges and getting rid of its stockpile of enriched uranium. If Iran tries to cheat over the next decade, sanctions will snap back into place. Simply put, this is the strongest non-proliferation arrangement ever negotiated.
Unfortunately, before members of Congress even read this deal, Republicans lined up to oppose it. None of their arguments, though, hold up under scrutiny. Last week, I gave a speech answering each of their criticisms, and I will continue to do everything I can to make the case to Congress and the American people that this deal deserves their support. This is perhaps the most consequential foreign policy decision our country has made in many years, and it’s critical that we have a thoughtful public debate, grounded in the facts.
Here’s my bottom line: If we are committed to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the choice we ultimately face is between a diplomatic solution and what would likely become another war in the Middle East in the near future. The idea that we can get a better deal by talking tough or squeezing Iran into submission with more sanctions is simply not realistic. The international unity we spent years building — the unity that brought Iran to the negotiating table — would be destroyed if this deal is rejected. Iran would likely kick out inspectors and move its nuclear program deeper underground, making it more difficult to detect and disrupt.
While this deal would set back Iran’s nuclear program for at least 15 years, provide unprecedented access and transparency indefinitely, and permanently prohibit Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, military action would buy us a few years at best.
From the time I first ran for president, I have said that we need to end the mindset in American politics that prioritizes military action over diplomacy and that rushes into conflict. That mindset is what led us to go to war in Iraq, and we are still dealing with the consequences of that decision more than a decade later.
As commander-in-chief, I have not hesitated to use force when necessary. If Iran does not abide by this deal, it’s possible that we won’t have any other choice than to act militarily. However, we cannot in good conscience justify a march toward war before we’ve exhausted diplomacy.
This deal prevents Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. Iran has agreed to it, and the international community overwhelmingly supports it. And, if Iran fails to meet its commitments, this deal preserves all our options for responding.
This is a very good deal for the United States, and we should be proud of it. We have the opportunity to make the world safer for our children — without resorting to war. That’s an opportunity that Congress should seize by supporting this deal.
Barack Obama is president of the United States.