Former Obama Adviser: Get Tougher on Iran

Dennis Ross (Associated Press)
Associated Press

Former Obama adviser Dennis Ross, who left the White House in 2011 amidst rumors of clashes with Valerie Jarrett, has co-written a strident op-ed in Politico urging President Barack Obama to take a tougher stance with Iran.

“Iranian officials must come to understand that there will be no further concessions to reach an accord and that time is running out for negotiations,” Ross and his co-authors argue, urging the U.S. to take action throughout the region against Iranian interests.

Ross also suggests that the U.S. highlight Iran’s dismal human rights record. The administration “should consider a political warfare campaign against Tehran,” they urge. In addition, they say that “American diplomats should not be afraid to walk away from the table” in nuclear talks, and argue that the Obama administration should work with Congress on shaping new legislation currently before Capitol Hill that would introduce new sanctions automatically if talks fail.

In September, Ross published an op-ed in the New York Times urging the White House to take a tougher stance against radical Islam–“do not reach out to Islamists; their creed is not compatible with pluralism or democracy.” However, Ross added, the U.S. should not cooperate with Iran against ISIS. Instead, Ross wrote, the U.S. should be “actively competing with Iran in the rest of the region, independently of whether an acceptable nuclear deal can be reached with Tehran.”

Last week, President Barack Obama renewed his 2014 threat to veto new sanctions on Iran, even those that would only take effect if talks fail. While the White House seems to want to reach a deal at any cost, Ross has a strategic view that focuses on the broader geostrategic threat Iran poses. Before leaving the White House, Ross was the Obama administration’s unofficial liaison to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom relations are at an all-time-low.

Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak edits Breitbart California and is the author of the new ebook, Wacko Birds: The Fall (and Rise) of the Tea Party, available for Amazon Kindle.

Follow Joel on Twitter: @joelpollak

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