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The President of the United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20500

October 7, 2013

Dear Mr. President,

We applaud your decision to use diplomacy vigorously in an effort to reach

agreements with Iran, particularly given President Hassan Rouhani's apparent

openness to greater transparency and internationally-accepted and verifiable

limits on Iran's nuclear program. The hard work of diplomacy begins now.

Decades of distrust and lack of contact between the two countries will

complicate the task of reaching agreements that will provide us the assurance

we require that Iran's nuclear program will be used only for peaceful purposes.

You will undoubtedly face opposition to your decision to engage Iran. We

support this new policy and pledge to help our fellow Americans appreciate the

ambitious and transformative course you have chosen to build a more peaceful

and more cooperative environment in the Middle East.

The diplomatic option is the right one at this time in view of the initiatives

taken by the Iranian government that were made possible in part by your past

policies. We wish you well in this constructive and important new undertaking.

Respectfully,

Morton Abramowitz , former Ambassador to Thailand and Turkey

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John Beyr le , former Ambassador to Russia and BulgariaHamid Big lar i , formerly Vice Chairman of CitiGroupAvis Bohlen , former Ambassador to Bulgaria and former Assistant Secretaryfor Arms ControlStephen Cheney , Brigadier General of the Unites States Marine Corps (RET)and Chief Executive Officer of the American Security Project

Ryan Crocker , former Ambassador to Iraq and AfghanistanSuzanne DiMaggio , Asia SocietyNancy Ely-Raphe l , former Ambassador to SloveniaLesl i e H.Gelb , President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign RelationsLee H. Hami lton , former member of the United States House ofRepresentatives

Will iam Harrop , former Ambassador to Israel and State DepartmentInspector General

Stephen Heintz , President, Rockefeller Brothers FundChris topher Hi l l , former Ambassador to Iraq, Macedonia, Poland and KoreaCarla Hi l ls , former U.S. Trade Representative and United States Secretary ofHousing and Urban Development

Danie l Kurtzer , former Ambassador to Israel and EgyptJohn Limbert , former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and former

Ambassador to Mauritania

Will iam H. Luers , former Ambassador to Venezuela and CzechoslovakiaJess i ca T. Mathews , President, Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceRichard McCormack , former Ambassador to the Organization of AmericanStates and Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs

Will iam G. Mil le r , former Ambassador to UkraineRichard Murphy , former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Syria, thePhilippines

Gregory Newbold , Lieutenant General United States Marine Corps (RET)Ronald Neumann , former Ambassador Afghanistan, Algeria and Bahrain

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Joseph Nye , former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and formerAssistant Secretary of Defense for International Security

Paul Pi l lar , formerly Central Intelligence AgencyThomas R. Pi cker ing , former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs,

Ambassador to Israel, India Jordan, Russia and the United Nations

Will iam A. Reinsch , National Foreign Trade CouncilKarim Sadjadpour , Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceGary Si ck , Columbia UniversityAnne-Mari e S laughter , President, New America FoundationJames Walsh , Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJohn Whitehead , former Deputy Secretary of StateLawrence Wilkerson , United States Army Colonel (RET) and former chief ofstaff to United States Secretary of State

Timothy Wirth , former United States Senator and Under Secretary of State forGlobal Affairs

Frank G. Wisner , former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy,Ambassador to Egypt and India

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