The fight to keep Iran-focused diplomacy alive isn’t over. Last year, with your help, efforts by some Senators – backed by groups like AIPAC – to pass new, diplomacy-killing Iran sanctions in the Senate (S. 1881) were stopped in their tracks. Now, the same group is at it again, with new Iran sanctions legislation expected to be introduced in the Senate next week.
National Security Advisor Susan Rice has predicted that new Iran sanctions would “blow up” negotiations. President Obama has promised to veto the legislation if it makes it to his desk. But this isn’t stopping Senate Iran hawks and their supporters. They appear more determined than ever to move ahead with new sanctions and are working to muster a veto-proof majority.
Iran negotiations have already demonstrated that diplomacy can deliver results. Now, with the clock ticking down to the end of the extension period, diplomacy must be given every possible chance to produce a deal that verifiably curbs Iran's nuclear program. And should negotiations end without a deal, there is nothing preventing Congress and the Obama Administration from revisiting all the various policy responses, including additional sanctions, at that time.
So why push ahead with new sanctions now, if not for the express purpose of undermining negotiations and ensuring their failure? Indeed, this new sanctions push only doubles down on the message sent resoundingly by some supporters of S. 1881 last year that they may favor confrontation to diplomacy, and prefer armed conflict to any negotiated deal with Iran. In sending such a message, supporters of the bill are not only once again making common cause with hardliners in Tehran, but also putting themselves at odds with the majority of Americans, who do not want more war.
With your help, this anti-diplomacy sanction effort can be stopped in its tracks, just as it was last year. The stakes are too high to stay on the sidelines. Please take action now.