Today on October 23rd, 2019 I went to a presentation by Thomas Pickering who is the former U.S. ambassador to Iran. His talk was informative and additionally gave some possibilities for future relations. He is in a very unique position of power – one where civility and diplomacy are prioritized over any other aspect of a scenario which he has to deal with. This allows Pickering to make decisions and state opinions that other powerful figures would not be able to make or state due to other ties and other priorities.
Pickering began his presentation by explaining a brief history of United States relations with Iran. He explained that Iran’s nuclear interest and its comprehensive plan of action to build up its nuclear repertoire created tensions with the U.S. Regardless of administration, the same problems would remain. These issues existed during the Obama administration, remain to this day during the Trump administration, and would be inevitable to cease whether the Trump administration was elected for another four years or a new more progressive agenda was elected. Under the Shah, Iran had a lot of great ambitions which led to attempts to utilize more chemical weapons and in greater quantities. These ambitions to be more of a force also led to developing a Nuclear program which was based especially around a French reactor. Using equipment from Pakistan, Iran tried to make Plutonium. U.S. sanctions were promptly placed on Iran as an incentive to get Iran to stop this production.
Currently, Iran is still working on the reactor to produce Plutonium. However, the legislature passed under the Obama administration indicates that if any one party finds Iran in violation of this resolution, all of the former sanctions will be reinstated. President Trump took the United States out of this agreement, and Iran has taken up the quantity and quality of its enrichment, and is now moving closer and closer to producing nuclear weapons. The U.S. tightened its sanctions on Iran, and the problems continue. At the end of the day, United States policy is essentially villainizing Iran. As Pickering admitted, Iran has made mistakes in its policy, but not unlike the United States, or any other nation. To conclude, Pickering delivered a powerful final line: “you have to negotiate with your enemies, not your allies.” Despite controversial choices by the Iranian government and the United States government alike, it is absolutely essential that there is some negotiation between these two nations if these continuous and repetitive problems are ever to come to an end.
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