Ilan Berman, the vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, said the U.S. needs to start formulating policies to deal with the nuclear threat of Iran when he spoke to a crowd of about 30 students at the UF Hillel Thursday night.
Berman said the U.S. could weaken Iran's economy by reducing the number of weapons it sells.
He also described the failure of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives to agree on a policy toward Iran.
“We’ve hit the pause button on the Iran policy for 11 months,” Berman said. “It hasn’t happened because it isn’t a bargaining chip.”
He said he thinks it’s possible, at least theoretically, to come up with a plan to stop Iran from continuing to build up its nuclear defenses.
“We have a huge challenge ahead of us,” Berman said.
Sarena Bhatia, a UF freshman, said she thought Berman was knowledgeable and objective about the issues.
“He’s not here with an agenda,” Bhatia said.
Micah Lutkowitz, vice president of Gators for Israel, said Berman was able to relate well to students during his speech.
Berman answered questions from students about U.S. policy toward Iran for about 30 minutes.
