Danielle Pletka offers free advice to the Trump administration as it deals with Iran.
When Donald Trump tore up the JCPOA — the Iran nuclear deal inked by Barack Obama — he made clear that he thought his predecessor had been taken. Perhaps the details of Obama’s concessions to the Iranian regime were foggy to the new President, but he sensed that the United States had given too much for too little. He was right, and it’s edifying to understand why Team Obama was indeed outmanned by Tehran.
Without diving too deep, the simple facts were these: Obama had decided, not without reason, that the logic of U.S. foreign relations in the Middle East was upside down. For decades, America stood with the Sunni powers and Israel, together against the Shia and Iran. And what had we reaped? War, war, war. Perhaps, he implied on more than one occasion, it was time to approach the thorny question of the region via Tehran.
The problem with this approach, as we now know all too well, is that it takes two to tango. The Iranians played a shrewd game, at first underestimating Obama, but after waves of punishing sanctions, signaling their openness to a negotiation. Without indulging too much in cliché, a lifetime of working on the Middle East, and yes, the purchase of many, many, many carpets, has taught me an invaluable lesson: the buyer must have a firm price, and be willing to walk away if it is not met. Persians need not be taught this lesson, which comes in the water. Americans. not so much. …
… But what should happen? How should the United States negotiate?
Finish the necessary military campaign, taking out Iran’s capacity to control and threaten the Strait of Hormuz. Finish the strikes on Iran’s nuclear and conventional capabilities. And possibly, end Iran’s ability to export oil.
Then, and only then, ask the Iranians if they want to come back to the table.
Present Iran with an MOU drafted in the United States, not Tehran or Islamabad, and explain that it is a take it or leave it offer.
