Letters: We Support the Iran Nuclear Pact

We, the undersigned, believe diplomatic negotiations with adversaries and mobilizing broad international coalitions of support can more durably resolve contentious issues than the threat or use of military force.

On July 14, 2015, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France ), along with Germany, reached agreement on a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran to prevent its creation of nuclear weapons. The Plan outlines rigorous inspections and other verification mechanisms to assure Iran’s compliance in exchange for the gradual lifting of the economic sanctions imposed by the
international community.

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved implementation of the agreement. The European Union, our prime partner in enforcing financial sanctions, has unanimously endorsed the agreement, and our leading European allies are already moving to normalize economic relations with Iran.

A refusal by the U.S. Congress to accept this hard-won agreement would isolate the United States, not Iran. Sanctions imposed by the United States alone would have little effect without the international community’s economic leverage. As the President has argued, rejection of the pact would increase the risk of armed conflict with Iran and would further destabilize the Middle East, which is already in turmoil.

A dozen years ago in Iraq, the United States turned its back on a united international front in favor of the use of military force. We have all been witness to the disastrous results. We do not want to repeat that experience with Iran.

We believe the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the best hope for stopping Iran’s nuclear program. We urge all members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, in particular Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, to support the agreement.

We urge readers to sign the following petition in support of the Iran
nuclear agreement, to be directed to our New Jersey US senators and representatives.  Readers can visit iranpeacepetition.com to add their names.

Jenny Crumiller
Virginia Kerr
Jeffrey Laurenti
Scotia MacRae

Send your letters for Planet Princeton’s Opinionator section to editor@planetprinceton.com. Please include a phone number in case we need to call you to ask you a question regarding your letter. Thank you.

6 Comments

  1. The majority of Americans are opposed to this deal 2:1 as of 8/5/2015, including many Democrats and especially Bob Menendez. Perhaps the fact that the Quds force General Qassem Soleimani (responsible for the deaths of more than 500 Americans) almost immediately flew to Moscow (in violation of international agreement) in order to place Iran’s order for high tech weapons would support the obvious fact that Iran will ignore any international agreement?

    This ‘deal’ does not stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and carrying out their clearly stated goals of destroying Israel and America. There will be greater nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. The Iranians, one of the primary sponsors of international terrorism by proxy will use released funds for more terrorism. Rather than acting as a leader here, President Obama has allowed other members of the UN coalition to weaken the agreement. Finally, ‘war’ is not the only option to this terrible deal, even though it is often cited as the only alternative.

    Perhaps Secretary Kerry has a harder time recognizing the enemy, since his daughter married an Iranian and since the son of his opponent in the negotiations (Mohammad Javad Zarif) was his son-in-law’s best man at the wedding. This fact alone, for those of you familiar with State Department protocol on relationships with foreign national enemies (and make no mistake, Iran is our enemy) under such circumstances.

    Neville Chamberlain would be proud of the lot of you. As you can see from the photo below, the Iranians are also delighted with your point-of-view.

  2. We don’t need any more wars of choice in the Middle East, thank you very much. The majority of Americans are opposed to any more wars in a region of the world which is mired in hideous, bloody internecine conflicts. You would think we would have learned from the disasters of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

  3. The people in the letter above actually trust Iran to perform it’s own inspections on itself! How naive can you be???

    VIENNA (AP) — Iran, in an unusual arrangement, will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect a site it allegedly used to develop nuclear arms under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.

    The revelation is sure to roil American and Israeli critics of the main Iran deal signed by the U.S., Iran and five world powers in July. Those critics have complained that the deal is built on trust of the Iranians, a claim the U.S. has denied.

    The investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency is linked to a broader probe of allegations that Iran has worked on atomic weapons. That investigation is part of the overarching nuclear deal.

    The Parchin deal is a separate, side agreement worked out between the IAEA and Iran. The United States and the five other world powers that signed the Iran nuclear deal were not party to this agreement but were briefed on it by the IAEA and endorsed it as part of the larger package.

    Without divulging its contents, the Obama administration has described the document as nothing more than a routine technical arrangement between Iran and the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency on the particulars of inspecting the site.

    Any IAEA member country must give the agency some insight into its nuclear program. Some countries are required to do no more than give a yearly accounting of the nuclear material they possess. But nations— like Iran — suspected of possible proliferation are under greater scrutiny that can include stringent inspections.

    But the agreement diverges from normal inspection procedures between the IAEA and a member country by essentially ceding the agency’s investigative authority to Iran. It allows Tehran to employ its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence for activities that it has consistently denied — trying to develop nuclear weapons.

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