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Rouhani at the UN: Why Israel Remains Unconvinced

(Guardian-UK) Michael Herzog - While welcoming a "genuine diplomatic solution" to the Iranian nuclear challenge, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this week warned the world not to be "fooled by half-measures that merely provide a smokescreen for Iran's continual pursuit of nuclear weapons." From Israel's perspective, spinning open-ended diplomacy while centrifuges continue to spin is a dangerous situation. When nearing Netanyahu's red line with its 20% enrichment, Iran converted most of the excess amounts to oxide form, which could be reprocessed back in a matter of weeks. At the same time, it added many centrifuges and is installing a new centrifuge generation (IR-2m), about four times faster than the old type. With its expanding arsenal and with the more advanced centrifuges, Iran may be able in the coming year to break out to a bomb's worth of enriched uranium (over 90%) within several weeks, and to a nuclear device within a few months. Looming over the horizon is an even more dangerous plutonium program: a heavy-water reactor is under construction at Arak. With international sanctions proving crippling - and driving Iran to seek a diplomatic exit - it is important not to relax them before the regime proves it has really changed course, or else it will be impossible to step the pressure up again. It is equally important not to allow this diplomatic endeavor to drag on endlessly while Iran develops its program to a critical breakout capacity. IDF Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Michael Herzog held senior positions in the office of Israel's minister of defense, and is now an international fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2013-09-30 00:00:00
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