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Six Reasons to Worry About the Iranian Nuclear Deal

(Bloomberg) Jeffrey Goldberg - 1.The nuclear agreement with Iran isn't done. Nothing was actually signed. The deal is not, as of this moment, operational. This means the Iranians are going about their business as if they've promised nothing. 2.Momentum for sanctions is waning. Many nations, many companies and the Iranians themselves are seeing this agreement as the beginning of the end of the sanctions regime. 3.The document agreed upon in Geneva promises Iran an eventual exit from nuclear monitoring. The final deal, the document states, will "have a specified long-term duration to be agreed upon." From what I'm told, the U.S. hopes this agreement would last 15 years; the Iranians hope to escape this burden in five. After the agreement loses its legal force, Iran could run as many centrifuges as it chooses. 4.The text of the interim agreement states that the permanent deal will "involve a mutually defined enrichment program with mutually agreed parameters." Essentially, the U.S. has already conceded that Iran is going to end up with the right to enrich. 5.There is no promise by Iran in this interim deal to abstain from pursuing work on ballistic missiles or on weaponization. Iran is free to do whatever it pleases on missiles and warhead development. 6.The Iranians are so close to reaching the nuclear threshold anyway - defined as the ability to make a dash to a bomb within one or two months - that freezing in place much of the nuclear program seems increasingly futile.
2013-12-04 00:00:00
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