Articles, Publications

Should Congress Approve the Iran Deal?

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The Iran nuclear deal represents the most comprehensive international agreement ever reached in the area of nuclear nonproliferation. The confidence-building measures it elicits from Iran in order to ensure that its nuclear program will remain peaceful—ranging from intrusive inspections to novel verification mechanisms—are the most powerful of their kind that a Nuclear Nonproliferation member-state has agreed to. If the objective was to certify Iran’s compliance with NPT and block all possible paths toward a bomb, then this agreement represents the maximum that could have been achieved.

 

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“Should Congress Approve the Iran Deal?” Hossein Mousavian, Foreign affairs, September 7, 2015.

Articles, Publications

It’s Time for Republicans to Abandon Their Short-Sighted Approach to Iran

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Republican intransigence over the Iran nuclear deal has proven to be futile, with Democratic senators successfully filibustering a Republican motion of disapproval last Thursday. However, this has not prevented the GOP from pursuing other inventive ways to derail this landmark diplomatic achievement. Sadly, the main consequence of dead-end Republican revanchism over the Iran deal is that it has reinforced highly insular mindsets — characterized by an “us-against-them” mentality — with respect to Iran.

In no circumstance has black and white moralizing ever given an accurate depiction of reality, least of all in regards to modern day Iran — a society far more complex and pluralistic than what many Westerners believe. By constantly shouting crude slogans denigrating Iran and spinning a spider’s web of misinformation about the country, Iran deal obstructionists are in fact acting in ways wholly counterproductive to the cause of international peace and security.

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“It’s Time for Republicans to Abandon Their Short-Sighted Approach to Iran,” Hossein Mousavian, The Huffington Post, September 14, 2015.