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The Iranian Inspections Mirage

(Wall Street Journal) Editorial - The nuclear deal specifies that International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors will first have to ask Iran's permission to visit a suspicious location. After that, Iran has the chance to propose "alternative means" to address IAEA suspicions. All of that will take some unspecified period of time. Only then, presumably, does the clock start ticking on the IAEA request. But depending on how Iran interprets such ambiguous clauses as "relevant information" and "alternative means," this process could stretch to a lot longer than 24 days. The Administration is also boasting that the deal establishes a dedicated "procurement channel" through which Iran will be required to purchase all of its nuclear-related material. This is supposed to stop Iran from illicitly shopping for spare nuclear parts - which it has repeatedly been caught doing during the 18 months of negotiations. Yet as sanctions on Iran are lifted and Iranian companies (or their middlemen) gain commercial access to the West, it will become all but impossible to prevent Iran from buying whatever it wants, wherever it wants.
2015-07-23 00:00:00
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