Op-ed: Partnering with Iran Would Be a Historic Mistake

From Politico:

On Sept. 26, 2012, an American pastor named Saeed Abedini who was visiting family and fellow Christians in Tehran was dragged out of the private home he was staying in and hauled away to jail by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Friday marked the second anniversary of his imprisonment, and for the last two years he has been beaten, abused and subjected to solitary confinement for weeks on end in Iran’s most notoriously dangerous prisons for the crime of professing his Christian faith.

Pastor Saeed isn’t the only American suffering at the hands of the Iranian regime. Marine veteran Amir Hekmati is also in prison. Retired FBI agent Robert Levinson is still unaccounted for. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian has been detained without public charges since July.

As they languish, nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States continue. Since the famous cell phone call from President Rouhani to President Obama last September, diplomats representing both countries have travelled from Geneva to Vienna to New York to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, matters have gotten steadily worse for the Americans suffering in that country.

Last November, for example, on the 34th anniversary of the day Americans were taken hostage in Iran—known as “Death to America Day” in Iran—Pastor Saeed was moved to the incredibly brutal Raja Shahr prison. It was a deliberate act of defiance to the United States.

Nonetheless, the Obama administration remains determined to pursue a path of diplomatic rapprochement to resolve the Islamic Republic’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ignored Saeed’s case during the first months of his imprisonment, and neither President Obama nor current Secretary of State John Kerry has made his release or that of his fellow Americans a pre-condition for negotiations.

Last week, just days from the second anniversary of Pastor Saeed’s incarceration, President Obama gave a major speech to the United Nations General Assembly. He focused on issues such as Ebola, ISIL militants in Iraq and the Russian invasion of Ukraine—all crises worthy of the attention of the American president and the United Nations. But entirely absent from his remarks was the grim threat posed to the United States and our allies by a nuclear-armed Iran.

In the very few words he devoted to the subject of Iran, President Obama offered the Iranians the “opportunity” to resolve the nuclear issue by "assuring the world" that their program is "peaceful.”

There was no mention of the many outright lies the Iranians have told about their program over the years.

There was no mention of Iran’s robust intercontinental ballistic missile program, the only purpose of which is to deliver a nuclear weapon.

There was no mention of Iran’s vast state sponsorship of terrorism.

There was no mention of the virulently hostile rhetoric routinely employed by Iranian officials about destroying what the Iranians call the “Great Satan” (America) and the "Little Satan” (Israel).

In a significant rhetorical shift, there was no declaration that the president of the United States would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran and would do whatever necessary to prevent Iran from gaining these terrible weapons.

And there was no mention of the Americans Iran won’t release. But, two days after the president’s speech, there were news reports that the United States is “considering meeting Iran halfway” on the nuclear issue.

It may be that President Obama has concluded that as he tries to manage a terrible epidemic, a vicious ISIL and an aggressive Vladimir Putin, it would be prudent to try and engage Iran as a potential partner. But such a policy would be a historic mistake. The other hot spots around the globe have not neutralized the threat from Iran, or made it less of a priority for the United States to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

As grave as all these dangers are, we should make no mistake: There is no greater threat to U.S. national security—nothing posing a greater risk of murdering millions of Americans—than the threat of a nuclear Iran.

We know from the brutal abuse of Pastor Saeed and his fellow Americans in Iran’s custody that the Iranian regime is actively looking for opportunities to hurt, not help, our country.

The Iranians may be trying to exploit the situation with ISIL to enlist our support for their proxies in Damascus and Baghdad—and to strike a far more favorable nuclear deal than would previously been possible—but they are not doing so out of respect for international norms or in pursuit of a peaceful energy program. They are doing so because it suits their purposes and may well allow them to preserve both the economic benefits they have gained from relaxed sanctions and the progress they have made with their nuclear program over the last decade, the purpose of which is to harm us.

U.S. leaders should not fall into the trap of blindly assuming that just because our enemy Iran hates our enemy ISIL, it means that Iran is now our friend.

We would do much more to defend the national security interests of the United States by seeking common cause with our real allies in the region than by pursuing some misguided and dangerous attempt at détente with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We should also insist that if the Iranians want a seat at the negotiating table, they must start by releasing the American citizens unjustly detained in their country. It’s time.