Washington, DC – In response to the US and Qatar-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami released the following statement:
“We welcome the agreement on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, brokered by the US and Qatar. This development marks a critical step toward preventing further escalation, regional destabilization, and civilian harm. We acknowledge the important US role in securing this agreement and in pressing both Iran and Israel to abide by its terms. Ensuring that the ceasefire holds will be essential to preventing further bloodshed and instability.
We express deep grief over the Israeli lives lost in Be’er Sheva this morning during Iran’s final barrage of rocket fire prior to the ceasefire taking full effect. We also mourn the hundreds of Iranian civilians whose lives have been claimed by this conflict. Their deaths are a painful reminder of the stakes and the urgency of preventing further violence, and why military action should always be a last resort.
Since the outset of Israel’s military campaign in Iran, we reiterated our belief that diplomacy rather than military escalation was the best route to contain the Iranian regime’s nuclear program.
We remain deeply concerned about the status of Iran’s enriched material and other elements of its nuclear program. It is unclear precisely what has been destroyed and what might remain, underscoring longstanding concerns about the limits of military action to verifiably and permanently set back Iran’s nuclear program.
It is essential that this moment of de-escalation leads to renewed negotiations between Iran and the US, as the clearest path to preventing the Iranian regime from developing nuclear weapons is the pursuit of a verifiable, enforceable nuclear agreement. This must include the re-entry of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors into Iran and a long-term framework that blocks the regime’s pathways to a bomb.
This ceasefire must also be used to return focus to other urgent priorities, including most importantly ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages, removing Hamas from power, and setting a path for a comprehensive regional peace and security agreement between Israel and its neighbors that includes a pathway toward the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state.”