Dear Supporter of a Just Foreign Policy,

Recently we've seen an escalation of threats to attack Iran.  In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh reported that Congressional leaders agreed last year to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran.¹ The House of Representatives is currently considering a resolution promoted by AIPAC that would effectively demand a blockade against Iran.²  This resolution has over 200 co-sponsors, although a surge of opposition has prevented it from being passed so far.

Here's what those promoting military attacks and blockades on Iran don't want Americans to know: there's an offer on the table that could resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program and allow both sides to claim victory.

Help us spread the word by watching and forwarding this video, in which former US Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering makes the case for talks with Iran, without pre-conditions, on multilateral uranium enrichment in Iran: <justforeignpolicy.org/involved/diplomacy>.

In March, Ambassador Pickering co-authored "A Solution for the US-Iran Nuclear Standoff" in the New York Review of Books.³ Pickering and his co-authors wrote:

"We propose that Iran's efforts to produce enriched uranium and other related nuclear activities be conducted on a multilateral basis, that is to say jointly managed and operated on Iranian soil by a consortium including Iran and other governments.  This proposal provides a realistic, workable solution to the US-Iranian nuclear standoff.  Turning Iran's sensitive nuclear activities into a multinational program will reduce the risk of proliferation and create the basis for a broader discussion not only of our disagreements but of our common interests as well."

On May 31, the Boston Globe interviewed⁴ Iran's Ambassador to the UN, who said that Iran "would not suspend its own enrichment program, but would consider establishing an internationally owned consortium inside Iran that could produce nuclear fuel with Iranian participation."  The Globe noted in a follow-up piece on June 10⁵ that Iran had proposed this idea in its May 13 letter to the UN calling for comprehensive negotiations, and that Iran's UN Ambassador had said that the details should be negotiated.

Unfortunately, most Americans don't read the New York Review of Books or the Boston Globe.  So, while polls consistently show most Americans want negotiations with Iran to resolve the nuclear dispute, most Americans don't know that there's an offer on the table right now to resolve the dispute that the US government is walking away from.

Won't you watch and help us spread this video so Americans can learn that there's a plan on the table right now to resolve the nuclear dispute?

justforeignpolicy.org/involved/diplomacy

Thanks for all you do for a just foreign policy and to keep us out of war with Iran,

Robert Naiman, Chelsea Mozen, and Megan Iorio
Just Foreign Policy
justforeignpolicy.org

Please contribute: We need your support to continue our work: justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html

References:

1 Seymour M. Hersh, "Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration Steps Up Its Secret Moves against Iran," New Yorker, July 7, 2008.

2 The resolution is H. Con. Res. 362; you -- and your friends -- can ask your Representatives to oppose it here:
<justforeignpolicy.org/involved/hconres362.html>.

3 William Luers, Thomas R. Pickering, and Jim Walsh, "A Solution for the US-Iran Nuclear Standoff," New York Review of Books, March 20, 2008.

4 Farah Stockman, "Iran Cool to Suspending Nuclear Agenda: Diplomat Says Issue Is One of National Pride," Boston Globe, June 1, 2008.

5 Farah Stockman, "Interest Grows for International Iran Atom Plant: Compromise Plan from MIT," Boston Globe, June 10, 2008.