Ex-Biden security advisor: Sitting with Iran isn't conceding 'leverage'

According to Sullivan, diplomacy backed by pressure that creates leverage “is the kind of formula that could work again to make progress, not just on the core nuclear issues..."

By OMRI NAHMIAS
Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden at a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., July 14, 2020. (photo credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS)
Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden at a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., July 14, 2020.
(photo credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS)
WASHINGTON – The Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, believes that “it is not a concession of leverage to sit down with Iran at the bargaining table,” said Jake Sullivan, who served as national security advisor to Biden when he was vice president.
Speaking at a webinar hosted by Democratic Majority of Israel during the Democratic National Committee convention, Sullivan said that at the end of the day, “what has been proven out over the past few years is that the United States has immense capacity, through the financial sanctions tool, to very swiftly ratchet up pressure. We did that in the Obama administration; the Trump administration did it; Iran knows that.
“He fundamentally believes that there’s a way to interplay the diplomacy side of this equation and the pressure side of this equation in a way that will help us secure the objectives that we’re trying to achieve,” he added.
According to Sullivan, diplomacy backed by pressure that creates leverage “is the kind of formula that could work again to make progress, not just on the core nuclear issues, but on some of these other challenges as well.
“One of the vice president’s commitments and all of this is to get to the table to be able to negotiate a follow-on agreement that does materially advance the security of the United States, of Israel, and our other regional partners as well, and does hold Iran to account.
And he believes that that is the best way to actually produce a durable outcome,” said Sullivan.
Michèle Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense during the Obama administration, said that the Trump administration’s approach of maximum pressure “has [put] a lot of pressure on Iran, but it hasn’t created any path to the negotiating table.”
“There’s no way for them to get back into negotiations,” she continued. “And so, in desperation they have turned to China. Every US administration since Nixon has had a strategic dialogue with China, except this one. This one has taken a very transactional unilateral approach.”
“If we had a strategic dialogue with China, this is the kind of issue that we could have very candid discussions about shared concerns, about Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region, alternative ways to handle it, like working together to get them back to the negotiating table, to get to even better agreement,” said Flournoy.