During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) questioned Dana Stroul, the Director of Research and Shelly and Michael Kassen Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, about strengthening a relationship with Iran.
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00:00Member Meeks for five minutes. Thank you. Mr. Stroll, let me just go to you first. Thank you
00:09for your service to our country. You know, I said in my opening remarks that there's more to be done
00:15to try to bring Iran and the U.S. to the table to negotiate the core issues of concern here,
00:25which is Iran's nuclear program because of that tough environment. But I also believe that,
00:32you know, when I look at it thus far, Iran's response is has been that they reject direct
00:42talks with the United States, but has left the door open to multilateral diplomacy. And what was
00:49important for me at the time of negotiating the JCPOA was that it was a multilateral agreement.
00:57There was things that were going on and negotiated that our allies wanted. That's how we got the
01:03agreement because we figured it wouldn't be just us by ourselves. So as Mr. Rule just said,
01:08getting them in so that we could box Iran in because it's not just the United States,
01:15it's the United States and our allies. Well, which I think is important. And then also,
01:22I think some credibility has been gone from the United States when we unilaterally pulled out
01:29and the other allies stayed in and wanted to work something together. So there's a lack of trust
01:37that then develops, you know, in that regards on both sides. So how do you think we could build some
01:44confidence with our adversary, Iran, so that we can begin negotiations? And how do we bring back
01:55a diplomatic track with our allies? So we are not by ourselves. I think Mr. Rule just talked about how
02:03significant and important that is. How do you think that we can do that? Thank you so much for this
02:09question. I couldn't agree with you more that we have seen in the past, Iran has been willing to
02:16negotiate when it feels diplomatic isolation, coupled with economic pressure and the threat of military
02:25force. Right now, we have tremendous sanctions pressure. And I believe there is a credible threat
02:30of military force on the table. And there is a unilateral offer to negotiate from President Trump.
02:37But what is missing is this multilateral element. So first of all, there is an eagerness in some of our
02:43our previous partners from the P5 plus one, specifically in Europe, to begin coordinating
02:49with Washington as soon as possible, ahead of this deadline in October later this year,
02:55when the remaining restrictions on Iran's nuclear program expire. Our European allies, and they are still
03:01our allies, are very interested in negotiating in aligning with us in order to have a unified front
03:07approaching Iran. Secondly, we have been using and relying on partners in the Middle East to pass
03:15messages to Iran and receive messages from Iran. And I think that's very important. But our partners in
03:21the Middle East also need to have confidence that if the Iranians lash out and threaten them or use military
03:27force against them, like we saw in the 2015 Epcake situation, that Washington is going to have their
03:33back and be willing to put security guarantees on the table and support their defense, just as the
03:38United States has done for Israel and supporting its defense. So one is clarifying our commitment to
03:45our partners defense. Two is making a meaningful and genuine effort to include them and consult with
03:50them on these talks. That will also strengthen any negotiation on the other side. Thank you. And I
03:56address this to you again, Ms. Stroll, and Mr. Rule. You know, hopefully we'll have time to hit both of you.
04:04You know, could you maybe tell us about the challenges that it would be in setting back the Iranian nuclear
04:15program militarily? You know, what would there be any challenges? Are there challenges there?
04:21Mr. Rule, Ms. Stroll? I'll try to do 20 seconds and hand it over to Mr. Rule. So the greatest challenge
04:29is that you cannot bomb away knowledge. Iran has mastered the cycle of nuclear fuel enrichment. And we
04:37know, based on intelligence community reporting in an unclassified manner, that they are undertaking the
04:43activities to position themselves to go across the threshold and weaponize should the supreme
04:49leader make the decision to do so. So we are at a perilous moment. Their nuclear program is
04:55geographically diverse. Some of it is above ground. Some of it is buried deeply underground. This means
05:01it's not a one night military campaign. We are talking about a serious campaign to set back a program
05:08in order to then buy time to negotiate or figure out what steps would happen on the other side of
05:13military action. It's a serious piece of business. I think my time has expired. Thank you to the
05:24ranking member. I now recognize for five minutes the gentleman from South Carolina.