November 8, 2013 | Quote
Will Barack Obama Let Iran Win in Geneva?
Iran and the P5+1 (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany) seem ready to strike an interim deal that would loosen sanctions on the Iranian economy in exchange for … It's hard to tell at the moment.
With any luck, a total suspension of uranium enrichment, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. At best, a commitment from the Iranians to limit enrichment, slow down work at the Arak plutonium facility and continue tweeting holiday greetings to Jewish people.
And in other news, Secretary of State John Kerry just told Israel's prime minister that he's inviting Palestinian violence on himself by not budging on the issue of settlements. Also, Saudi Arabia might go nuclear, now that it believes the U.S. is moving closer to Iran. Also, there's some sort of civil war going on in Syria.
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2. How does the deal, as it is currently being understood, divert Iran from its goal of building a nuclear-weapons infrastructure? I asked Mark Dubowitz, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a (hawkish) expert on the Iranian program. He said: “This deal would allow Iran to keep in place its entire nuclear infrastructure and maintain a still dangerous uranium breakout capacity with more than sufficient centrifuges to move, at a time of its choice to weaponize uranium. It does nothing to address centrifuge manufacturing, which is the key element to Iran's secret enrichment program.” The deal — again, we haven't seen official details yet — would also allow Iran to “to continue work on its plutonium nuclear pathway.”