The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East
For more than a decade, the United States has been engaged in a war with Iran as momentous as any other in the Middle East—a war all the more significant as it has largely been hidden from public view. Through a combination of economic sanctions, global diplomacy, and intelligence work, successive U.S. administrations have struggled to contain Iran’s aspirations to become a nuclear power and dominate the region—what many view as the most serious threat to peace in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Iran has used regional instability to its advantage to undermine America’s interests. Jay Solomon’s book, The Iran Wars, is the product of extensive in-depth reporting and interviews with all the key players in the conflict.
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Overview
Jay Solomon, author of The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East, discussed his new book on the ongoing economic and diplomatic wars with Iran.
On October 6, 2016, the Middle East Program and the Nonproliferation Forum of the Wilson Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory hosted the event “The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East,” with Solomon, also a foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Robert S. Litwak, Vice President for Scholars and Academic Relations at the Woodrow Wilson Center, moderated the event. Jane Harman, Director, President, and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center, provided opening remarks, mentioning Litwak’s book Deterring Nuclear Terrorism and expressing her gratitude to him for keeping the scholar program “vibrant at the Wilson Center.”
Litwak began the conversation by explaining that the United States has engaged in an economic and diplomatic war with Iran, which has largely been hidden from public view, to prevent Iran from becoming a regional power. He noted that Iran has viewed the acquisition of nuclear weapons as a valuable step toward attaining regional influence, but the United States has tried to block these efforts through sanctions and global diplomacy. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated between the P5+1 and Iran, only limits Iran’s nuclear capabilities for 15 years and has been criticized for not addressing other U.S. grievances against Iran, Litwak said.
Solomon described how his interest in Iran peaked at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency, when the United States was trying new strategies to contain Iran. Solomon stated the Obama administration’s preferred strategy was financial warfare in the form of economic sanctions, which targeted specific sectors in the Iranian economy, most notably banking, airlines, and oil. Fixated on resolving tensions with Iran and nonproliferation, Solomon explained that President Obama was willing to engage Iran when Europe was not, and made it clear that despite the sanctions, the United States was always open to diplomacy. As for the events in Syria, Iran seems to “get a free pass” for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Russia receives most of the criticism from Western media, said Solomon. He indicated that President Obama was reluctant to engage Iran because that might have discouraged Iranian cooperation in the nuclear negotiations.
In the question and answer section, former Middle East Program Director Haleh Esfandiari asked about bank and cash transfers to Iran. Solomon explained that the U.S. Department of the Treasury is concerned about Iran getting cash because that money might be used to fund Hezbollah. Solomon was then asked about the rumors that suggested the Bush administration had planned a military action against Iran. Solomon denied the allegation and asserted that neither President Bush nor President Obama seriously considered authorizing strikes on Iran. The United States worried Israel might take action against Iran, said Solomon, because Israel was the likely factor that would start conflict. If Israel bombed Iranian nuclear installations, it would certainly escalate the tensions in the region. He recalled Shimon Peres, former President of Israel, stating in an interview how he had to convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from IDF strikes against Iran in 2011.
A question was directed to Solomon about the interpersonal relations during the U.S.-Iranian negotiations. In response, Solomon said Iranian negotiators seem to understand U.S. politics well and were able to play both sides, appeasing the Iranian government and the U.S. government. One of the last questions was about why it was such a problem for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Solomon explained that other nations, like Saudi Arabia, do not want Iran to get nuclear weapons because the fear is that once Iran has nuclear capability, it will become more aggressive militarily. The weapons might also give Iran an excuse to justify engaging in more conventional operations in the region.
By Nathan Painter, Middle East Program
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Middle East Program
The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform US foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Read more
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