A crowd gathered for the forum on the future of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Anna Gustafson/The Forum Newsgroup
Just days before Iran was expected to propose limiting its nuclear program in exchange for the United States and European Union scaling back sanctions on it, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Wallace told a crowd gathered in Forest Hills that President Obama should not ease the country’s imposed restrictions on the Islamic republic.
Wallace, who served as the U.N. ambassador during President George W. Bush’s administration and is now the chief executive officer of the group United Against Nuclear Iran, joined UNAI Executive Director David Ibsen, a former official at the U.S. State Department, for a forum sponsored by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) at the Forest Hills Jewish Center Monday evening. The forum, titled “Halting Iran’s Nuclear Program,” drew dozens of residents from throughout the borough and focused on the future of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Mark Wallace, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and chief executive officer of United Against Nuclear Iran, speaks at a forum sponsored by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng at the Forest Hills Jewish Center Monday night.
“None of us should underestimate the importance of economic pressure,” Wallace told the crowd in reference to his message that the economic sanctions on Iran should remain, despite the country’s recent diplomatic push to get the restrictions eased in exchange for its cooperation on halting its nuclear work. According to an Oct. 8 report by the Wall Street Journal, Iranian officials are preparing a serious offer it will unveil during talks in Geneva next week to limit its nuclear program – which Wallace, Ibsen and many others in the U.S. and Europe have said is a blatant pursuit of atomic weapons. Iran has denied this statement, arguing it is an energy program for its citizens.
“It makes no commercial or civilian sense that Iran is enriching uranium to the 20 percent level,” Wallace said, stressing the only reason to do so would be to acquire an atomic weapon. In order to produce atomic weapons, uranium must be enriched to the 90 percent level – which some U.S. officials have said they believe Iran could, based on its technology, reach within months.
The potential offer to halt its nuclear program comes from Iran’s new president, Hasan Rouhani, and such an offer, a number of foreign policy experts have said, could break the icy diplomatic relations that the U.S. and Iran have had for decades.
The U.S. has imposed some sort of sanctions on Iran since 1979, following the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
“President Rouhani campaigned on some sort of nuclear deal,” Wallace said. “…But if he wanted to end his nuclear program, he could’ve done it on his first day in office. Now he’s on his 65th.”
Meng, who wasn’t able to attend the forum because she had to be at negotiations in Washington D.C., spoke to attendees via skype and said, “nothing is a higher priority… than assuring Iran does not achieve nuclear capability.”
“I don’t oppose our pursuit of diplomacy…but the regime is nothing but duplicitous,” said Meng, a member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. “Our government must continue to impose tough sanctions – it’s the sanctions that have drawn Iran to the negotiating table.”
By Anna Gustafson
