I’ve written here and here about how the NJDC, the ADL and the American Council on World Jewry have urged ratification of the START missile reduction treaty.
The groups see the treaty as critical to getting Russian support to isolate Iran. Republicans blocking ratification say its verification measures are substandard and that it unnecessarily reduces the U.S. profile in Europe.
Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy says the Iran-START push comes from within the administration. He quotes Vice President Joe Biden as making the connection last week:
“I’m not suggesting that if START fails, all of the sudden we’re back in the Cold War with Russia but I am saying that the things in the margins that make a big difference right now might very well be different,” Biden said, referring to what he called “unprecedented” Russian cooperation on Iran and Afghanistan.
He praised Russia’s decision to forgo selling the S-300 air defense missile to Iran as well as Moscow’s cooperation in bringing new multilateral sanctions against Tehran via the U.N. Security Council. “Absent that cooperation I think [it] is problematic whether or not China or even Europe would have made some of the tougher sanctions decisions that we made,” Biden said.
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