Sanders position on Iran: ‘Divorced from reality’

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Although they both support the Obama administration-brokered nuclear deal with Iran, American policy on the Islamic Republic has become a fresh point of disagreement for the top two candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

During the latest Democratic debate on Jan. 17, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called for normalization in relations with Iran, which would represent a radical shift in U.S. policy in the Middle East. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she considered such a move to be premature.

“I think what we have got to do is move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran, understanding that Iran’s behavior in so many ways is something that we disagree with,” Sanders said. Clinton countered, “We’ve had one good day over 36 years, and I think we need more good days before we move more rapidly—before more normalization.”

Sanders, who is Jewish and was raised in Brooklyn, also said, “Can I tell you that we should open an embassy in Tehran tomorrow? No, I don’t think we should. But I think the goal has got to be as we have done with Cuba to move in warm relations with a very powerful and important country in this world.”

Supporters of Clinton were quick to blast Sanders’s position as naïve and potentially dangerous.

“Sadly, I’m not shocked at Bernie’s newly stated position. It follows his most-liberal-at-any-cost naïveté on some foreign policy matters,” said Steve Rabinowitz, a Jewish backer of Hillary Clinton who heads the Bluelight Strategies public relations firm, has worked on the national staffs of nine presidential campaigns, and served as White House director of design and productions for President Bill Clinton.

“I’m particularly disturbed that Bernie, who has not had so much to say about Israel this campaign, chose to call for the U.S. to normalize relations with Iran on the very same day President Obama put on new sanctions,” Rabinowitz said, referring to new U.S. sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program that were unveiled Jan. 17.

Josh Block, a self-identified Democrat who has been involved in national politics and policy for more than 20 years and now serves as CEO and president of The Israel Project, a “non-partisan American educational organization dedicated to informing the media and public conversation about Israel and the Middle East,” called Sanders’s stance on Iran “deeply concerning.”

“Iran is the engine of all misery, suffering, and instability across the Middle East. The notion that we would normalize relations with them is divorced from reality. That someone would suggest that it’s possible is deeply concerning,” Block said.

For its part, despite this month’s implementation of last summer’s nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 nations, the White House has maintained that it will not seek to normalize ties with Iran, with Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes confirming that position on Jan. 15.

Block, however, argued that Obama’s current Iran policy is more troubling than the expressed views of Sanders.

“Bernie represents a very Pollyanna and wishful thinking of the world. He’s a self-proclaimed socialist, and I think that’s what you get from people who are communists and socialists, ideas that are divorced from reality. And I would contrast that with the president’s perspective, in which the president is asking to empower [Iran] and in many ways normalize relations with Iran. That is much more dangerous than Bernie Sanders getting up as a socialist and calling for normalization,” Block said.

Brian Hook, who served as assistant secretary state in George W. Bush’s presidential administration, said Sanders’s position on normalization “would double down on Obama’s failed strategy to accommodate Iran.”

“Senator Sanders should resist the illusion that more dialogue and deeper bilateral relations with Iran will make things better for America or its allies. Quite the opposite, in fact,” Hook said.

Clinton’s campaign, which has attempted to portray the candidate as a sober and seasoned expert on foreign policy, has sought to capitalize on Sanders’s Iran comments. A group of 10 former diplomats and national security officials, many of whom worked under the former secretary of state or her husband as president, said in a statement critical of Sanders’s remarks:

“These are complex and challenging times, and we need a commander-in-chief who knows how to protect America and our allies, and advance our interests and values around the world. The stakes are high. And we are concerned that Senator Sanders has not thought through these crucial national security issues that can have profound consequences for our security.”

The officials—including Wendy Sherman, former undersecretary of state for political affairs; Jeremy Bash, former chief of staff to both the CIA director and defense secretary; and Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state for political affairs; among others—also called its “troubling” that Sanders has so far had a limited publicly expressed strategy for eliminating the Islamic State terror group.

Clinton’s campaign continued its targeting of Sanders’s foreign policy credentials by releasing a video starring Jake Sullivan, a former key Hillary Clinton aide at the State Department, who helped make America’s initial diplomatic breakthrough with Iran in 2012 and now serves as a policy adviser to her campaign. 

Sanders’s approach to Iran “breaks with the sober and responsible diplomatic approach that’s been working for the United States,” Sullivan said.

He added that the proposal to normalize ties with Iran “would not succeed, but it would cause very real consternation among our allies and partners.”