Recess

Floor Speech

RECESS -- (Senate - March 03, 2009)

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PRESIDENT OBAMA'S MISSILE SHIELD LETTER TO RUSSIA

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise today in support of President Obama's critical recognition that Russia must be a major player in blocking Iran's development of dangerous weapons. Yesterday, it was reported that the President wrote to Russia's President Dmitri Medvedev signaling an openness to re-examining the contested missile defense system in Eastern Europe, while urging Russia to help us stop Iran from developing nuclear warheads and long-range weapons.

This overture by President Obama is Reaganesque in its boldness. It has the potential to represent the most cooperative approach to a global threat by our two countries since President Reagan and Gorbachev signed the missile treaty 20 years ago.

It signals the ushering in of a new era of tough and smart thinking about foreign policy that has been desperately lacking in the White House. Rather than alienating potential allies, President Obama and his team are demonstrating that they will abandon the Bush unilateral approach to nuclear nonproliferation in favor of galvanizing international support to meet the challenge posed by these deadly weapons.

I am not an after-the-fact supporter of this strategy. I have long thought that the key to de-fanging Iran's nuclear threat lies in Russia's cooperation in imposing tough economic sanctions on Iran. In fact, in an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal last summer, I urged President Bush to offer to Russia a deal: in exchange for walking back the missile defense system that Russia so opposes, the U.S. should get Russia to back the United States' economic sanctions on Iran that are our best stick for making sure that their nuclear threat does not become a reality.

I also made this suggestion in person at the White House last year. I was literally told by Vice President Cheney ``We can't do that.'' Well, there's new
leadership in Washington and President Obama says ``Yes we can.''

Today, there should be no lingering doubt that Iran represents a profound threat to our global security. The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report confirms that Iran remains in hot pursuit of a nuclear program. The report told us that Iran now possesses 1,010 kilograms, 2,222 pounds, of low-enriched uranium, which raises concerns that it now has sufficient uranium and the means to enrich it to produce nuclear warheads.

Whether President Ahmadinejad actually intends to make good on his threat remains to be seen. But what we do know is that the administration needs to use every diplomatic tool in our arsenal to halt Iran's progress in the development of deadly nuclear weapons.

In the recent past, we have made some progress in ratcheting up economic pressure on Iran by sanctioning four of Iran's major state-owned banks. This move has dramatically limited Iran's ability to conduct international business, as a growing number of foreign banks are unwilling to risk reputational harm or loss of access to U.S. financial markets. More economic pressure can and must be applied.

These sanctions are effective against Iran for several reasons. Despite the fact that the leadership and government of Iran is a theocracy, the Iranian people are largely secular and look westward for their cultural bearings. It's a common sight to see satellite dishes hidden in air-conditioning ducts, so Iranians can stay abreast of Western culture. Its growing youthful population also has strong ties to the west. MTV is a popular TV channel among the young in the country, not al-Jazeera. Iran is also wealthier than most neighbors in its region, and its inhabitants have enjoyed a higher standard of living than most people living in the Middle East.

However, Russia is blunting the impact of the sanctions. Economic self-interest motivates Russia's arguments that there is no evidence that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program and that sanctions would undermine the International Atomic Energy Agency's efforts. Russia makes money from business with Iran, since Russia currently supplies over 75 percent of Iran's arms imports. Russia continues to supply Iran with nuclear fuel and to train Iran's nuclear engineers.

More ominously, Prime Minister Putin's nationalist rhetoric, designed to remake Russia into a global power and restore nationalist pride to the Russians, has led Russia into an even tighter embrace with Iran, an embrace that must be untangled if we are ever to truly eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat.

It is also not a secret that little has raised Russia's anger and fueled its nationalist impulses more than the Bush administration's missile shield plan. Putin argued that such a plan would both reignite the arms race of the 1980s and damage Russia's relations with the United States, Poland, and the Czech Republic. He also said that the shield would prompt Russia to increase its own defenses and abrogate its commitments to demilitarize under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

Despite Russia's loud complaints over this missile shield, the Bush administration plowed ahead, securing reluctant agreement from our allies at the NATO summit earlier last summer to move forward with its implementation.

Let me be clear. The United States is committed to both protecting against the threat of a nuclear Iran and protecting a free and prosperous Eastern Europe. But the Bush administration's plan to deploy the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic has never made much sense. The technology has never been proven to work, it has not been determined to be cost-effective, and it will do nothing to tackle the ultimate source of this threat, Iran's stubborn refusal to abandon its nuclear program. At the same time, it does very little to preserve the necessary and very important independence of Eastern Europe.

In this context, it seems clear that the U.S. and Russia each have something to gain from each other. President Obama appears to recognize this dynamic. In exchange for joining the West in imposing economic sanctions on Iran until they stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons, I encourage the administration to roll back its predecessor's plans for a missile shield. It makes sense. With Russia on board, economic sanctions will have much greater success, and countries like China will certainly think twice before engaging with the Iranian regime. Russian participation will give multilateral sanctions against Iran real teeth, and we can halt Iran's nuclear program before it is too late.

The President's gesture to Russia is the kind of smart, targeted diplomacy our dangerous world needs. Given that a nuclear Iran is such a profound threat, this strategy makes eminent sense. The United States could give up a non-vital missile program in Eastern Europe in exchange for vitally needed Russian cooperation to prevent Iran from going nuclear. President Obama and President Medvedev do not need to look into each other's soul. They just need to be able to trust each other's handshake.

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