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June 18, 2013

How to End the Stalemate With Iran

By SEYED HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN and MOHAMMAD ALI SHABANI-- 

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June 18, 2013

How to End the Stalemate With Iran

By SEYED HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN and MOHAMMAD ALI SHABANI

THE stunning election of a pragmatic former Iranian nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, has

offered the Obama administration a once-in-a-lifetime chance to end the atomic stalemate with

Iran.

In the West, Mr. Rowhani is widely seen as a turbaned politico from inside the establishment.

One of us has worked for him directly, as his deputy in nuclear talks. The other has conducted

research at the think tank he runs. We can attest that he is wary of a purely ideological

approach to foreign policy and is driven by more than simple expediency in pursuit of the

national interest. After seeing the nuclear deal he was attempting to negotiate with the

European Union fall apart in 2005, Mr. Rowhani is now seeking to resolve the nuclear issue

once and for all, and also to redeem himself politically.

Mr. Rowhani's victory demonstrates that there is now real momentum toward the initiation of

direct talks between Iran and the United States. Despite remarks he has made to appease

hard-liners since his victory, Mr. Rowhani's campaign rhetoric made clear his desire to change

the hostile relationship with America. In recent months, even Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah

Ali Khamenei, has given permission for direct negotiation — although he has not expressed

optimism about its prospects.

The single biggest threat to this unique window for dialogue is misguided perceptions of each

side's respective strengths and weaknesses. To avoid squandering this opportunity, President

Obama and President-elect Rowhani, who takes office in August, must resist and debunk the

false impressions that have been promoted by extremists on both sides.

In Washington, some have started portraying Mr. Rowhani's election as proof that America's

current approach, which relies on tough sanctions, is working. The perception is that the

Iranians are willing to budge on their nuclear rights, and that the centrist president-elect —

who once agreed to temporarily and voluntarily suspend uranium enrichment — will make

unreciprocated concessions. According to this theory, a weakened Iran, hungry for an imminent

end to hard-hitting sanctions, will take what it can get. This view implicitly promotes the

dangerous idea that the United States should retain or even stiffen its rigid nuclear posture.

In Tehran, there is a sense of optimism about the nuclear issue that derives from a tenuous

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narrative of Iranian resurgence. For years, there has been a systemic reluctance to engage in

substantive negotiations, unless Iran is operating from a position of strength. Now a new

president has won a clear popular mandate after eight years of President Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad's divisive rule. As a result, there is a growing perception that Iran has the longsought

upper hand.

Indeed, many view Mr. Rowhani's background as the supreme leader's longtime personal

representative to the Supreme National Security Council as evidence of a new era of national

cohesion. This perception of strength could spur Iran to seriously enter nuclear negotiations.

But overconfidence could also lead Iran's rulers to avoid making the concessions necessary to

break the stalemate.

When two rivals walk into a room, each convinced that he has the upper hand, it can end only in

disaster. These diametrically opposed perceptions of the meaning of Mr. Rowhani's election

have the potential to torpedo this unique opportunity for a deal.

Worryingly, the West has a history of squandering chances to strike a deal with Mr. Rowhani.

He has publicly suggested that one route out of the nuclear stalemate is the torpedoed 2005

proposal he negotiated with Jacques Chirac, France's president at the time. Under that plan,

Western powers would recognize Iran's legitimate rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation

Treaty, including uranium enrichment for civilian purposes like nuclear energy and medical

research.

In exchange, Iran would accept the International Atomic Energy Agency's definition of

"objective guarantees" that the Iranian nuclear program will remain peaceful and not be

diverted toward weaponization in the future. That proposal fell apart because of pressure from

the George W. Bush administration, which insisted on no enrichment at all.

Eight years after the collapse of dialogue with the European Union, the dominant discourse in

Tehran still portrays Mr. Rowhani's recommendation to suspend enrichment on a voluntary,

temporary basis as a failure because it resulted only in humiliating calls for an indefinite

suspension of all enrichment.

But Iran's relinquishing of its legitimate rights under the N.P.T., including enrichment, isn't, and

has never been, on the table. However, Iranian leaders are open to new measures that would

permanently allay Western concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

Indeed, the contours of a final nuclear deal are clear. Iran will have to agree to the highest level

of transparency and cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and assure

world powers that its nuclear program will never be diverted toward weaponization. In

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exchange, the West will have to recognize Iran's right to peaceful nuclear technology, including

enrichment, and gradually lift sanctions.

Sooner rather than later, Iran and the United States will engage with each other. The main

obstacle to a final deal is no longer its terms, but the path to reaching such an accord. Mr.

Rowhani and Mr. Obama must stick to pragmatism and fend off extremism. They must

combine prudence with courage and take reciprocal, rationally sequenced steps, and then follow

through with hard sells at home. And most of all, they must avoid embracing the

misperceptions of strength and weakness that have brought us to the brink.

After decades of fruitless confrontation, both the United States and Iran need cooperation.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former spokesman for Iran's nuclear negotiators, is a research scholar

at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton and the author of

"The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: A Memoir." Mohammad Ali Shabani, a contributing editor at the

Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs, is a doctoral candidate at the School of Oriental and African

Studies, University of London.

William O. Beeman 

Professor and Chair 

Department of Anthropology 

University of Minnesota 

395 HHH Center 

301 19th Avenue S.  

Minneapolis, MN 55455 

(612) 625-3400 

wbeeman@umn.edu