FDD Executive Director Tells Congress Deadline-Triggered Sanctions Strengthen Negotiating Leverage

WASHINGTON – Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Congress Tuesday that deadline-triggered sanctions against Iran would strengthen U.S. negotiating leverage and increase the likelihood of a peaceful nuclear compromise.

“Deadline-triggered sanctions will undercut the hardliners in Iran,” Dubowitz said. “The goal of deadline-triggered sanctions is to convince these hardliners that continued nuclear intransigence will be met with massive and debilitating pressure.”

Dubowitz, who also leads FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance, told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that the deadline-triggered sanctions would not violate the current interim agreement, but “send a message to Tehran that deadlines are deadlines.”

Dubowitz said Congress has imposed many of the most impactful sanctions over the White House’s objection, and the Obama administration has raised similar arguments against previous sanctions legislation. He added the proposed bill would give the president flexibility to continue negotiations through unlimited 30-day waivers.

“Increased economic pressure on Iran diminishes the chances of war,” he said. “Without enhanced pressure now, a future U.S. president may be left with insufficient economic leverage to respond to Iranian nuclear intransigence and be forced to resort to military action.”

Dubowitz also argued new sanctions would not cause Iran to permanently walk away from the negotiating table.

“The Iranian threat to walk away from the negotiations if deadline-triggered sanctions are imposed is counter-historical,” he said. “Despite escalating sanctions, Iran has remained at, or returned to, the negotiation table over the past decade, using talks to legitimize its nuclear weapons program, and to avoid a full U.S.-led financial and trade embargo.”

“If Tehran terminated the talks, such a move could trigger a complete embargo that could cripple its economy and put the regime’s survival in question,” Dubowitz said, adding that “an acquiescence to this threat now would hand Iran effective veto power over the actions of American lawmakers or the next president.”

Dubowitz also rejected the Obama administration’s claim that the current interim agreement has “halted” Iran’s nuclear program.

“Tehran has suspended only reversible aspects of the program it has mastered, while retaining the freedom to work on aspects it has not yet mastered,” Dubowitz said. “These include the military dimensions of Iran’s program, the development of long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, the testing of advanced centrifuges, and the accumulation of more nuclear material.”

Dubowitz also said Russia, China and the Europeans likely would continue to participate in negotiations because they are concerned about a nuclear-armed Iran as well. “The introduction of deadline-triggered sanctions may increase tensions in the P5+1, but it won’t do material damage to the international coalition,” he said, questioning why Russian President Vladimir Putin would now leave the talks over deadline-triggered sanctions on Iran when he didn’t after Washington imposed sanctions on his own country.

Dubowitz is an expert on Iran and sanctions and has provided research on sanctions issues to the U.S. administration, Congress, and numerous foreign governments. He is the director of FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance and is the co-author of 15 studies on economic sanctions against Iran.  He also is co-chair of the Project on U.S. Middle East Nonproliferation Strategy, a nonpartisan project co-chaired by five nonproliferation and sanctions experts.  Dubowitz is a lecturer and senior research fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, where he teaches and conducts research on international negotiations, sanctions, and Iran's nuclear program.

Dubowitz has recently co-authored op-eds on the prospects for the Iranian nuclear negotiations in The National Interest, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He has regularly appeared on CNN and Fox News Channel.

The full text of the written testimony can be found here.

About the Foundation for Defense of Democracies:
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 policy institute focusing on foreign policy and national security. Founded in 2001, FDD combines policy research, democracy and counterterrorism education, strategic communications and investigative journalism in support of its mission to promote pluralism, defend democratic values and fight the ideologies that drive terrorism. Visit our website at www.defenddemocracy.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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