The White House push for the Iran nuclear deal reaches back into
diplomatic history Wednesday, taking to the same venue used by President
Kennedy to urge for a landmark arms control deal with Moscow at the
height of the Cold War.
President Obama in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday. (Michael Reynolds/EPA)
The planned speech by President Obama may mostly repeat his appeals on behalf of the accord between Iran and six world powers to limit Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.
But the backdrop at American University has evoked parallels with another pivotal moment in U.S. strategic diplomacy: Kennedy’s outreach to the Soviet Union in 1963 to reach a nuclear test-ban treaty just eight months after the Cuban missile crisis.
A White House official said Obama also plans to take sharper aim at critics of the Iran deal, asserting that the “same people who supported war in Iraq are opposing diplomacy with Iran, and that it would be an historic mistake to squander this opportunity.”
Obama and other top administration officials, including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, have framed the Iran deal as a last-chance opportunity to roll back Iran’s nuclear ambitions and, in particular, the scope of its ability to enrich uranium.
The West and its allies fear that Iran’s nuclear fuel production could one day be expanded to make weapons-grade material. Iran insists it does not seek nuclear arms, but demands that it retain the capacity to make its own fuel for peaceful reactors.
The Iran package faces widespread opposition in Congress — even among some Democrats — before the Sept. 17 deadline to vote. Obama has promised to veto a possible congressional rejection, setting up the key showdown over whether opponents could muster enough votes to override the Oval Office.
The administration got a big boost Tuesday when three influential and previously undecided Senate Democrats — Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Timothy M. Kaine (Va.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.) — endorsed the agreement.
The president is still working to persuade other undecided Democrats, most notably Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.).
Obama also must confront relentless push back against the deal from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu did a webcast for more than 10,000 Jewish Americans in which he said that “this is the time to oppose this dangerous deal.”
The planned speech by President Obama may mostly repeat his appeals on behalf of the accord between Iran and six world powers to limit Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.
But the backdrop at American University has evoked parallels with another pivotal moment in U.S. strategic diplomacy: Kennedy’s outreach to the Soviet Union in 1963 to reach a nuclear test-ban treaty just eight months after the Cuban missile crisis.
A White House official said Obama also plans to take sharper aim at critics of the Iran deal, asserting that the “same people who supported war in Iraq are opposing diplomacy with Iran, and that it would be an historic mistake to squander this opportunity.”
Obama and other top administration officials, including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, have framed the Iran deal as a last-chance opportunity to roll back Iran’s nuclear ambitions and, in particular, the scope of its ability to enrich uranium.
The West and its allies fear that Iran’s nuclear fuel production could one day be expanded to make weapons-grade material. Iran insists it does not seek nuclear arms, but demands that it retain the capacity to make its own fuel for peaceful reactors.
The Iran package faces widespread opposition in Congress — even among some Democrats — before the Sept. 17 deadline to vote. Obama has promised to veto a possible congressional rejection, setting up the key showdown over whether opponents could muster enough votes to override the Oval Office.
The administration got a big boost Tuesday when three influential and previously undecided Senate Democrats — Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Timothy M. Kaine (Va.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.) — endorsed the agreement.
The president is still working to persuade other undecided Democrats, most notably Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.).
Obama also must confront relentless push back against the deal from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu did a webcast for more than 10,000 Jewish Americans in which he said that “this is the time to oppose this dangerous deal.”
