Pressure

President Obama, in a speech earlier this week at AIPAC, signaled a willingness to go back to finding a diplomatic solution with Iran. As Josh Rogin reports, a group of senators issued a joint statement for the president urging him not to back down from pressuring Iran, regardless of other measures he might be considering.

Senators Bob Menendez, Jim Risch, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Richard Blumenthal, Kelly Ayotte, Kirsten Gillibrand, Marco Rubio, Ben Cardin, Pat Toomey, Chuck Schumer, and Lindsey Graham say:

"As the P-5+1 prepares to resume talks with Iran, we strongly believe that any hope for diplomatic progress with Iran depends upon a continuing and expanding campaign of U.S. and international pressure on the regime and that such pressure must continue until there is a full and complete resolution of all components of illicit Iranian nuclear activities."

The group of senators is made up of Democrats and Republicans.

They add: "[W]e remain extremely concerned that the Iranian government will seek to buy time or otherwise dilute the focus of our diplomacy through proposals that either suspend or reverse the current momentum of the pressure track in exchange for partial measures that fail to address the totality of their nuclear program," the senators' statement continued. "Such tactical maneuverings are a dangerous distraction and should not be tolerated. For instance, we would strongly oppose any proposal that caps or limits sanctions against the Iranian regime in exchange for anything less than full, verifiable, and sustained suspension of all enrichment activities, including both 3 percent and 20 percent enrichment."