Wendy Sherman: “Mr. Speaker, at Natans, the centrifuges are turning. Iran is perhaps half a decade away from a nuclear weapon. Iran…”

“Mr. Speaker, at Natans, the centrifuges are turning. Iran is perhaps half a decade away from a nuclear weapon. Iran, however, is not without its Achilles heels. The mullahs have mismanaged the economy to the point where they are rationing gasoline in Tehran. Iran has a vibrant political culture in which the behavior of the elites and the behavior of the people can indeed be influenced by outside information. The key is to be able to broadcast into Iran on RadioFarda a message. That message is that Iran will be diplomatically and economically isolated around the world, and especially from the United States, unless it drops its nuclear weapons program. The problem is, I can't lie that well in Farsi. The fact is we have not yet begun to use the economic and diplomatic levers available to the United States. And it is not yet true that Iran's nuclear program subjects it to the possibility of economic and diplomatic isolation. The bad news, Mr. Speaker, is that we have not had the political will to reach into our economic and diplomatic tool box. The good news is we've still got a lot of tools lying there in the tool box. One of the best is divestiture. Divestiture needs to be part of a bigger economic and diplomatic strategy to isolate the government in Tehran.”