Iran, Hamas, Israel, and the United States

The United States Institute of Peace is a national, nonpartisan, independent institute, founded by Congress and dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical and essential for U.S. and global security. The USIP regularly gathers statements from US, and some foreign, government officials on particular situations. 

Today the USIP made a statement about the Hamas attack on Israel. They pointed out that Hamas, although a Palestinian movement, is armed and trained by the support of Iran. While US and Israeli officials were initially concerned that Iran was complicit in the attack on Israel, there has been no evidence at this time that Iran directed or was behind it. The US has subsequently warned Iran not to get involved in the current situation. 

Iran has been of grave concern to the US for some time now because of it’s potential for making nuclear weapons. Through several presidencies, with bipartisan convictions, the US has considered Iran one of the greatest threats to US interests in the Middle East. In addition to attempted nuclear weapon proliferation, Iran has created increasingly accurate ballistic missiles, provided drones to Russia, provided financial and military support to militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen as well as Hamas and Hezbollah, increased aggression against the US at sea, conducted cyberattacks against the US government and plotted the assassination of US officials. According to intelligence, Iran has the supplies and the capability to make four nuclear weapons in a year or two. Since November of 2022, the US and Israel have increased their joint military operations to combat any move by Iran to produce such weapons. The “Juniper Oak 23” exercise held in January 2023 was the largest U.S.-Israeli military exercise ever conducted. Although numerous US officials have stated that diplomacy is the best way to deal with Iran’s plans for nuclear weapons, all have ended their statements with words along the lines of “but nothing is off the table.”

Israel-Hamas War: U.S. and Europe on Iran Role (October 12, 2023) 

U.S.: The Iran Threat & Options (August 1, 2023)

Iran Nuclear Agreement: Selected Issues for Congress

On August 6, 2015 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report entitled Iran Nuclear Agreement: Selected Issues for Congress By Kenneth Katzman and Paul K. Kerr. The agreement between Iran and the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia, and China (countries labelled the P5+1), is under review by Congress until September 17. A paragraph in the report's summary describes the agreement in broad terms:

Broadly, the accord represents an exchange of limitations on Iran’s nuclear program for the lifting or suspension of U.S., U.N., and European Union (EU) sanctions. The text contains relatively complicated provisions for inspections of undeclared Iranian nuclear facilities, processes for adjudicating complaints by any of the parties for nonperformance of commitments, "snap-back" provisions for U.N. sanctions, finite durations for many of Iran’s nuclear commitments, and broad U.N., E.U., and U.S. commitments to suspend or lift most of the numerous sanctions imposed on Iran since 2010. Many of the agreement’s provisions have raised questions about the degree to which the accord can accomplish the P5+1 objectives that were stated when P5+1-Iran negotiations began in 2006.

Threat From Iranian Nuclear Development

On Sept. 19, 2008 the Bipartisan Policy Center (a non-profit organization established in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell to provide a forum to address tough policy challenges) released a report entitled Meeting the Challenge: U.S. Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Development. Not surprisingly, the report, co-chaired by former senators Daniel Coats (Republican from Indiana) and Charles Robb (Democrat from Virgina) concluded that "Iran's nuclear development may pose the most significant strategic threat to the United States during the next administration."