[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 82 (Thursday, May 27, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4510-S4511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SANCTIONS ON IRAN
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, on May 25, Robert Kagan, a senior associate
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote a column in
the Washington Post explaining that Russia's recent agreement to
tighten sanctions on Iran is not as significant as the Obama
administration has claimed.
Dr. Kagan wrote that the Obama administration paid a high price to
get Russia to agree to ``another hollow U.N. Security Council
resolution'' and that the Russians ``sometimes used to say and do
more'' during the Bush administration. It is unclear to me what the
administration can point to as the fruits of the Russia reset, at least
as far as the United States is concerned.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have Dr. Kagan's column
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record as follows:
[From the Washington Post, May 25, 2010]
A Hollow `Reset' With Russia
(By Robert Kagan)
It took months of hard negotiating, but finally the
administration got Russia to agree to a resolution tightening
sanctions on Iran. The United States had to drop tougher
measures it wanted to impose, of course, to win approval.
Nevertheless, senior Russian officials were making the kinds
of strong statements about Iran's nuclear program that they
had long refused to make. Iran ``must cease enrichment,''
declared Russia's ambassador to the United Nations. One
senior European official told the New York Times, ``We
consider this a very important decision by the Russians.''
Yes, it was quite a breakthrough--by the administration of
George W. Bush. In fact, this 2007 triumph came after
another, similar breakthrough in 2006, when months of
negotiations with Moscow had produced the first watered-down
resolution. And both were followed in 2008 by yet another
breakthrough, when the Bush administration got Moscow to
agree to a third resolution, another marginal tightening of
sanctions, after more negotiations and more diluting.
Given that history, few accomplishments have been more
oversold than the Obama administration's ``success'' in
getting Russia to agree, for the fourth time in five years,
to another vacuous U.N. Security Council resolution. It is
being trumpeted as a triumph of the administration's
``reset'' of the U.S.-Russian relationship, the main point of
which was to get the Russians on board regarding Iran. All
we've heard in recent months is how the Russians finally want
to work with us on Iran and genuinely see the Iranian bomb as
a threat--all because Obama has repaired relations with
Russia that were allegedly destroyed by Bush.
Obama officials must assume that no one will bother to
check the record (as, so far, none of the journalists
covering the story has). The fact is, the Russians have not
said or done anything in the past few months that they didn't
do or say during the Bush years. In fact, they sometimes used
to say and do more. Here's Vladimir Putin in April 2005: ``We
categorically oppose any attempts by Iran to acquire nuclear
weapons. . . . Our Iranian partners must renounce setting up
the technology for the entire nuclear fuel cycle and should
not obstruct placing their nuclear programs under complete
international supervision.'' Here's one of Putin's top
national security advisers, Igor S. Ivanov, in March 2007:
``The clock must be stopped; Iran must freeze uranium
enrichment.'' Indeed, the New York Times' Elaine Sciolino
reported that month that Moscow threatened to ``withhold
nuclear fuel for Iran's nearly completed Bushehr power plant
unless Iran suspends its uranium enrichment as demanded by
the United Nations Security Council''--which prompted the
Times' editorial page to give the Bush administration
``credit if it helped Moscow to see where its larger
interests lie.'' Nine months later, of course, Russia
delivered the fuel.
It remains to be seen whether this latest breakthrough has
greater meaning than the previous three or is just round four
of Charlie Brown and the football. The latest draft
resolution tightens sanctions in some areas around the
margins, but the administration was forced to cave to some
Russian and Chinese demands. The Post reported: ``The Obama
administration failed to win approval for key proposals it
had sought, including restrictions on Iran's lucrative oil
trade, a comprehensive ban on financial dealings with the
Guard Corps and a U.S.-backed proposal to halt new investment
in the Iranian energy sector.'' Far from the comprehensive
arms embargo Washington wanted, the draft resolution does not
even prohibit Moscow from completing the sale of its S-300
surface-to-air missile defense system to Tehran. A change to
the Federal Register on Friday showed that the administration
had lifted sanctions against four Russian entities involved
in illicit weapons trade with Iran and Syria since 1999,
suggesting last-minute deal sweeteners.
What is bizarre is the administration's claim that Russian
behavior is somehow the result of Obama's ``reset''
diplomacy. Russia
[[Page S4511]]
has responded to the Obama administration in the same ways it
did to the Bush administration before the ``reset.'' Moscow
has been playing this game for years. It has sold the same
rug many times. The only thing that has changed is the price
the United States has been willing to pay.
As anyone who ever shopped for a rug knows, the more you
pay for it, the more valuable it seems. The Obama
administration has paid a lot. In exchange for Russian
cooperation, President Obama has killed the Bush
administration's planned missile defense installations in
Poland and the Czech Republic. Obama has officially declared
that Russia's continued illegal military occupation of
Georgia is no ``obstacle'' to U.S.-Russian civilian nuclear
cooperation. The recent deal between Russia and Ukraine
granting Russia control of a Crimean naval base through 2042
was shrugged off by Obama officials, as have been Putin's
suggestions for merging Russian and Ukrainian industries in a
blatant bid to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty.
So at least one effect of the administration's ``reset''
has been to produce a wave of insecurity throughout Eastern
and Central Europe and the Baltics, where people are starting
to fear they can no longer count on the United States to
protect them from an expansive Russia. And for this the
administration has gotten what? Yet another hollow U.N.
Security Council resolution. Some observers suggest that
Iran's leaders are quaking in their boots, confronted by this
great unity of the international ``community.'' More likely,
they are laughing up their sleeves--along with the men in
Moscow.
Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, writes a monthly column for The
Post.
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