October 16, 2013 | Quote
Iranian Official Wants Year to Resolve Nuclear Issue
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif offered Tuesday to take a year to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with world powers. That is probably too long a time period for the West and Israel, which says Iran is stalling for time to complete its bomb.
Zarif's written offer was labeled “Closing an Unnecessary Crisis, and Opening a New Horizon.” It proposes a three-step plan to settle the conflict “within a year.”
The proposal, details of which were not revealed, is being mulled by a group of nations called the P5+1 (the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany), which met Tuesday in Geneva for talks with the Iranians.
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Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Iran's year-long timeline shows Iran realizes it must get relief from sanctions soon. He doubts Iran is negotiating in good faith.
“A year is a good amount of time to rope-a-dope the P5+1, string things along and get to critical nuclear capability and be at or near a breakout capability” by the time a deal is done, he said.