Richard Nephew: No to War, Yes to Diplomacy

Before shooting down of the U.S. drone by Iran and setting Aramco oil facilities on fire by Yemeni forces, the U.S. used to beat the drum of war, and these belligerent propagations but void and bluffing ones motivated Saudi Arabia that it might probably be forced somehow to enter a war beside the U.S. in order to get revenge of its defeats which were resulted from expansion of Shiite thought. But these two incidents of shooting down of the U.S. drone and attacks on Aramco oil facilities caused drastic changes in the U.S. and Al-Saud belligerent policies so that it took breath away from both hostile countries against Iran, and they were forced to seek prudence for countering Iran.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Early evidences indicate that Saudi Arabia’s stand towards Iran has softened. By the way, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have realized that U.S. President Donald Trump’s goals related to Iran do not conform to theirs. The UAE officials met their Iranian counterparts and discussed issues related to the security of shipping in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Hajj and Umrah welcomed resuming umrah hajj for Iranian pilgrims. Saudi Arabia’s efforts for starting negotiations with Iran kicked off with welcoming resumption of umrah hajj for Iranians.

Meanwhile reports from last month meeting in Brookings Institution indicate that U.S. think-tanks have removed the option of war with Iran from the agenda and they have resorted to diplomacy. During the meeting, Robert Einhorn, Richard Nephew and Vann H. Van Diepen delivered speeches on Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities. Einhorn is former U.S. Department’s Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Van Diepen is a former United States civil servant who worked in a variety of positions in the United States Department of State. Nephew also served at the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the State Department and in the Office of Nonproliferation and International Security at the Department of Energy and was part of the U.S. negotiating team with Iran.

Nephew who is known as architect of the U.S. sanctions on Iran in the Brookings Institution meeting emphasized some topics that one could see no violence in them.

The most important issue which was emphasized by the participants in the meeting was that they believed multiple approaches are necessary in the negotiations, adding that they suggested the U.S. to return to the P5+1 mechanism because its success had been proved before. They added that of course they were well aware that the U.S. allies (Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel) in the region feel they were ignored during the P5+1 talks. They recommended that during the next talks there should be constructive talks and consultation with those allies.

In some part of their report, the think-tanks state,” Above all, our solution policy is diplomacy. We believe that genuine diplomacy must be center of the U.S. policies. We believe that our recommendations can be now operationalized although we think that Donald Trump’s government is not prepared to pay attention to these recommendations. We also believe that it is impossible these recommendations and suggestions for the foreign policies to be taken into consideration at least by 2021.”

They also reiterated, “Inclusion of  our recommendations in the future agreement requires a general evaluation of  Iran’s  nuclear obligations like revising them at the time of nuclear escape, and how sanctions being reduced, today we need talks in this regard. We hope our report to become base for the ideas which define the dimensions of talks with Iran in the future.”

This incentive, that such a famous and reliable think-tank in the U.S. gives, means that Iran’s applied policies, along with timely serious and brave reactions, have made the U.S. change its policies.

Trump because of the upcoming presidential election is unable to skirt Zionist lobbying like President Obama did but it does not mean that he would not accept Brookings’ policies.

That political axis regarding to the consequences of 40-year hostility does not have enough efficiency to adjust the condition is itself important and Americans after the presidential election would replace political axis with economic one on their agenda.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian