How to get an Iran Nuclear deal: Top 7 Confidence-Building Steps

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/nuclear-confidence-building.html

How to get an Iran Nuclear deal: Top 7 Confidence-Building Steps
By Juan Cole | Dec. 19, 2013
(By Bijan Khajehpour, Reza Marashi and Trita Parsi)

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1) U.S./E.U.-Iran Science Summit

The U.S./E.U. can propose holding a high-level, high profile U.S./E.U.-Iran Science Summit, potentially under the auspices of TED, that brings together the best and brightest Iranian, European and American scientists across a range of non- controversial scientific fields (proposed initiatives below are prime candidates for topics at such a summit). To ensure that the summit will make a deep impact on the discourse in Iran, the U.S. and its partners can work to secure the attendance of prominent American and Iranian American personalities, such as Bill Gates, Pierre Omidyar, or Omid Kordestani . . .

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2) Green Energy

A common – and not entirely indefensible – justification that Iranian officials provide for their country’s nuclear program is domestic energy needs. To that end, American and European officials can work together to organize and send to Tehran a delegation of green energy executives, with the expressed intent of collaborating with Iran on state-of-the-art renewable energy technology. Many areas in Iran are ripe for the utilization of solar and wind resources. Iranian organizations have undertaken numerous projects on optimizing energy consumption, as well as using renewable and pollution-free sources of electricity. But much more can be achieved if collaboration with leading renewable energy entities in the West could take place…

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3) Send the Head of the Science Committee on Capitol Hill to Tehran

A frequently discussed but rarely enacted confidence-building measure is creating linkages between the U.S. Congress and Iranian Majles. In the current context, domestic political 22 realities make this type of outreach challenging, but both sides have a handful of brave legislators that are willing to move forward on this idea if they have political protection from the highest levels of their respective governments. To that end, the U.S. can communicate directly to Ayatollah Khamenei and President Rouhani’s offices its willingness to support outreach between American and Iranian lawmakers on mutually-agreed upon science issues…

4) Key University Presidents visit Tehran Like lawmakers, university presidents are high-profile figures in society that bring an air of respect and importance to the initiatives they undertake. In recent years, Iranian universities have increasingly fallen prey to sanctions and other forms of pressure, which in turn has reduced their links to the international community – even in non-contentious fields. This has strengthened the narrative of the hardliners and given it an air of accuracy, allowing them to argue that if the West is not seeking to prevent Iran’s overall technological progress, why is it affecting Iranian universities in areas that are unrelated to the nuclear program? In an effort to remedy this, a noteworthy gesture on the part of the White House would be to send the presidents of prominent American universities to meet with their Iranian counterparts in Tehran as a first step. The expressed intent of these visits would be to build academic collaboration on mutually agreed upon science issues between institutions, professors and students in the U.S. and Iran…