The framework deal to limit Iran's nuclear program bears "the clear fingerprints" of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton —and her "tough-minded" foreign policy adviser who was involved in early meetings with the Iranians,
Politico reports.
Jake Sullivan, 38, who joined Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign as a policy adviser and then worked as her director of policy planning when she became secretary of state, helped arrange the historic call between President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sept. 27, 2013, to kick off the public phase of the nuclear talks, Politico reports.
But Sullivan had spent months beforehand secretly laying the groundwork.
In July 2012, it was Sullivan who flew to Oman's capital, Muscat, along with National Security Council aide Puneet Talwar to hold the first of several meetings with Iranian officials to see if they were serious about compromise, Politico reports.
"The Iranians look at him as someone they can deal with," Dennis Ross, a former top national security official in the Obama White House, told Politico.
It was because of Sullivan's "deep personal involvement in the process" that Thursday's framework deal "bears the clear fingerprints of his political mentor … who first assigned him to the Iran file and with whom he remains extremely close," Politico reports.
The news site reports that in the coming months, Sullivan, considered Clinton's "most trusted foreign policy adviser," is expected to be counseling the all-but-certain Democratic presidential candidate, "who will have to position herself against critics of the Iran deal and her role in it."
"They include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and powerful Jewish-American political groups — not her 2016 Republican rivals, who uniformly oppose it," Politico writes.
Yet even Iran-deal critics compliment Sullivan.
"Sharpest guy on the [Iran] issue I know," Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tells Politico, adding that Sullivan was "much more skeptical and tough-minded" about the Islamic Republic than other Obama administration officials.
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