October 15, 2014 | Quote
Iran Executions Surge Amid U.S. Nuclear Talks
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“The administration has really made a big mistake in not repeatedly highlighting abuses,” said Mark Dubowitz, an authority on U.S. nonproliferation strategy and executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “By ignoring Iran’s poor human rights record, the administration is actually playing into the Iranians’ negotiation games, effectively legitimizing Tehran as a responsible international player.”
Mr. Dubowitz said the White House does not seem to be seizing on a classic human rights lesson of the Cold War era.
“The lesson from Ronald Reagan,” he said, “is that you can and should negotiate arms control agreements at the same time that you’re using the U.S. presidential bully pulpit to highlight the human rights violations of a given regime — in this case Iran, although back then it was the Soviet Union — in order to expose that regime as untrustworthy to follow through on any commitments, including arms control commitments.”
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