cover image A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran

A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran

Trita Parsi. Yale Univ., $27.50 (304p) ISBN 978-0-300-16936-2

Middle East foreign policy expert Parsi (Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States) looks at the Obama administration’s response—from January 2009 to fall 2010—to Tehran’s march toward nuclear weapons. The U.S. initially used a “hybrid” approach formulated by Dennis Ross, which combined diplomatic “engagement” with the threat of sanctions. According to Parsi, sanctions took the driver’s seat due to Washington’s pervasive mistrust of Iran, as well as pressure from hard-line Republicans and such allies as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and France. Parsi examines the negotiations toward a confidence-boosting “swap” in 2009 (1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, which could be upgraded for building a nuclear bomb, would be removed from Iran while enriched fuel rods, which could be used for peaceful purposes, would be returned a year later), which failed because of Iranian resistance. When Tehran agreed to essentially the same deal after a Brazilian-Turkish initiative a year later, it was the Obama administration that balked. In a superb epilogue, Parsi calls for a decoupling of diplomacy and the threat of sanctions, and for long-term, patient diplomacy on matters including human rights. Based on interviews with American, Iranian, Israeli, and other diplomats, and existing documents, this book is a must-read for all those interested in the relationship between Washington and Tehran. Agent: Deborah Grosvenor. (Feb.)