Former presidential advisors criticize US preconditions for negotiating with Iran
Washington, 22 July (IranVNC)— A former presidential advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, joined other experts today at a panel discussion on how to diplomatically deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions hosted by a Washington think tank, where he openly criticized US policy of setting preconditions as a basis for opening negotiations with Iran.
By: IranVNC
Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008
18:00GMT—03:00PM/EST
CSIS – BRZEZINSKI — IRAN – NUCLEAR
Washington, 22 July (IranVNC)— A former presidential advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, joined other experts today at a panel discussion on how to diplomatically deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions hosted by a Washington think tank, where he openly criticized US policy of setting preconditions as a basis for opening negotiations with Iran.
Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor to President Carter at the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, who is currently advising Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, told the audience at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, he believes any preconditions for initiating negotiations to be counter-productive and hopeless.
“I think it is very difficult to imagine the Iranian government, convoluted, weak, and divided as it is, to give up something it has a natural right to - and under international law it does - as a concession for the right to negotiate with the 6 and U.S.,” Brzezinski told the panel, referring to the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, which are urging Iran to cease its nuclear program.
Brzezinski believes Iran's ultimate aim is to achieve something similar to Japan's status as an officially non-nuclear power that has mastered all the steps necessary to acquire a nuclear bomb in a relatively short period of time.
Barack Obama’s opponent in ’08 presidential race, Senator John McCain, had solicited advice from Brzezinski’s fellow panelist and former National Security Advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, General Brent Scowcroft.
Though Brzezinski and Scowcroft stand on opposite sides of the political aisle, both staunchly support a diplomatic solution to Iran’s conflict with its adversaries, particularly Israel, which has the capabilities to launch a preemptive strike against Iran.
The two former advisors also saw eye to eye on the US insistence on leaving the option of using military force on the table, saying it would legitimize any military strike from Israel, and, in Brzezinski’s view, “push Iranians into a more nationalistic, dogmatic stance.”
Scowcroft argued that the main fear of the West should not be Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, but how this nuclear technology could spread around the world.
“To me whether or not Iran itself has [nuclear weapons] is a less important question than what it will do to proliferation around the world,” Scowcroft told the panel. “I think we’re standing on the brink of another forward surge in nuclear proliferation. …Don’t talk about ‘do we bomb them now or after they get weapons.’ That’s not the point. The point is how we dissuade Tehran from its current course of action.”
Sources: IranVNC Correspondent
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.