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Questions for President Obama about Iran

(Atlantic) Jeffrey Goldberg - Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, argues that there is still time for the administration to make improvements to the Iran nuclear deal to make the agreement stronger - without opening it up for renegotiation - and that, he suggests, is what the Obama administration should be doing. Satloff generated a list of questions he would like to ask President Obama about the deal: ◦You have argued that the Iran deal enhances Israel's security and those of our Arab Gulf allies. At the same time, your administration has offered the Gulf states a huge security package by way of compensation and you have expressed frustration that the government of Israel has not yet entered into discussions with you to discuss ways to bolster its security. But if the Iran deal bolsters their security, shouldn't their security needs be going down, not up? It certainly seems odd for you to claim to understand Israel's security needs more than its democratically elected leaders. Are there other democracies whose leaders you believe don't recognize their own best security interests or is Israel unique in this regard? Former [National Security Council] Iran policy advisor Dennis Ross and others have urged you to transfer to Israel the "mountain-busting" Massive Ordnance Penetrator as a way to boost Israel's independent deterrence against Iran. Instead, in your letter to Congressman [Jerrold] Nadler, you highlighted your plan to send Israel a much less capable weapon. Why are you reluctant to send Israel the best item we have in our inventory to address this profound threat?
2015-08-28 00:00:00
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