July 1, 2014 | Quote
The Hawks’ Playbook For Opposing An Obama Nuclear Deal With Iran
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The two authors of the plan — Mark Dubowitz, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, and Richard Goldberg, the former senior foreign-policy advisor to Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk — each played pivotal roles in shaping the Iran sanctions debate in the past year. Rather than blowing up an historic agreement, they both insist the paper is simply a guide for how to keep sanctions in place that will deter and punish Iran if it doesn't comply with a final deal.
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A regular on Capitol Hill, Dubowitz provided expert testimony on the Iran talks before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in November and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June. His warnings about the folly of Obama's “bad deal” with Tehran and the inherent deceptiveness of the Iranian regime were often cited by hawkish lawmakers in both parties, including the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). “He's very well informed, with a team of Wall Street consultants who contribute to [his] analytical materials on the Iranian economy,” said Maloney.
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As it stands, Iranian oil revenues are accumulating in escrow accounts thanks to a 2012 law passed by Congress called the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act. Iran can only spend these escrow funds on certain goods in countries which buy its oil. In their paper, Dubowitz and Goldberg say “none of these escrowed oil funds” should be repatriated back to Iran until the country ceases being a “state sponsor of terror.” The sanctions regime bears some resemblance to the Iraq oil-for-food program established by the United Nations in 1995 to allow Saddam Hussein to sell oil on the world market in exchange for medicine, food, and similar items.
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Dubowitz rejected the comparison, noting that his preferred plan is based on the existing oil revenues escrow program, would not be administered by the United Nations and allows Iran to purchase a much wider array of goods than the oil-for-food program did. “This is not about oil-for-food, it's about oil for anything that's non-sanctionable,” he said.
His proposed sanctions regime would still bar Iran from spending money on a list of items in the energy, technology and telecommunications sector — and place other limits on sanctions relief as well.
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Dubowitz is well aware that the administration is likely to fall short of his strategy paper, should it manage to secure a deal in the first place. Regardless, he says he wants to arm members of Congress with the information they need to scrutinize any final deal. “We think the administration's deal should be measured against some standard with respect to how sanctions relief should be done and this is our contribution to that framework,” he said in an interview.
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