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A panel of former senior American officials and outside experts, including several who recently left the Obama administration, issued a surprisingly critical assessment<\/a> of American diplomacy toward Iran<\/a> on Wednesday, urging President Obama<\/a> to become far more engaged and to reconsider the likelihood that harsh sanctions will drive Tehran to concessions.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In a report issued by the Iran Project, the former diplomats and experts suggested that the sanctions policy, rather than bolstering diplomacy, may be backfiring. As the pressure has increased, the group concluded, sanctions have \u201ccontributed to an increase in repression and corruption within Iran\u201d and \u201cmay be sowing the seeds of long-term alienation between the Iranian people and the United States.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The critique comes as both Israel and Congress are urging the administration to go in the opposite direction, to put a sharp time limit on negotiations and, if necessary, to go beyond the financial and oil sanctions that have caused a tremendous drop in the value of the Iranian currency and sent inflation soaring.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI fundamentally believe that the balance between sanctions and diplomacy has been misaligned,\u201d said Thomas R. Pickering<\/a>, who was one of the State Department\u2019s highest-ranking career diplomats and whom the department has called on to head up important investigations, including one into the death last fall of the American ambassador to Libya.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In an interview, Mr. Pickering also contended that Mr. Obama should review the covert program against Iran \u2014 which has included computer sabotage of its nuclear facilities \u2014 to \u201cstop anything that is peripheral, that is not buying us much time\u201d in slowing Iran\u2019s progress. The report itself, however, says nothing about the sabotage effort, which has been a major element of the American strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Pickering, who is such a towering figure in the State Department that a major program to train young diplomats is named for him, is not the only prominent signatory of the report. Others include Lee H. Hamilton<\/a>, who was a leader of the commission on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and serves on Mr. Obama\u2019s intelligence advisory board; Anne-Marie Slaughter, the director of policy planning during Mr. Obama\u2019s first term; and Ryan C. Crocker<\/a>, who served in many prominent ambassadorial positions. Former Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, an early mentor to Mr. Obama in the Senate, was among the Republican signatories.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n At the core of the difference in strategy are these questions: Are the increasing sanctions likely to harden Iran\u2019s position and convince its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the president\u2019s real goal is overthrowing the current government? Or are they likely to convince the Iranians, eventually, that the price of continuing the country\u2019s nuclear program<\/a> is simply too high, as Mr. Obama has argued?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n So far, there is plenty of evidence that the sanctions are hurting Iran, but none that they are changing the course of the country\u2019s nuclear program. Still, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted this week to bolster sanctions, if necessary, and Israel has argued that the stalling of the most recent round of talks has offered only more proof that the Iranians are playing for time, seeking to expand their nuclear enrichment capacity while keeping the talks limping along.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Obama and his diplomats have insisted that the sanctions they have imposed are in support of diplomacy. A State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement that the administration was sticking with its approach.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe just completed a series of diplomatic talks\u201d with America\u2019s allies in dealing with Tehran, Ms. Psaki said, \u201cincluding three recent rounds of meetings that included Iran.\u201d She said that \u201ca dual track approach of rigorous sanctions and serious negotiations is the right approach. However, the onus is on Iran to take the next steps and move the process forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n