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U.S. Strategy on Iran Must Reverse the Mistakes of 2015
(Washington Times) Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser - President Trump's recent statement that the U.S. will accept nothing less than "total dismantlement" of Iran's nuclear program is a welcome signal that the U.S. will reverse the mistakes of the Iran negotiations of 2015. That's particularly important because Iran today is much more dangerous than it was in 2015, when I was a member of the Israeli delegation that discussed with President Obama's team what demands to make in its talks with Tehran. Iran has used the intervening years to significantly advance its military nuclear program. It has accumulated enough highly enriched uranium to produce fissile material for about 10 nuclear bombs within a short time. It possesses missiles that can carry a nuclear warhead and reach any target in the Middle East. Ten years ago, the U.S. delegation expressed appreciation for our ideas on how to keep Iran in check, but it largely did not enact them and ended up acceding to Iran's demands. The Americans expected that the regime would abandon its malign ambitions and become a contributing member of the family of nations. They failed to grasp that the Iranian regime is on a mission to spread its fundamentalist version of Shiite Islam all over the world. Ten years on, we have hard-won evidence that dealmaking has failed to constrain the Islamic republic. The deal gave Iran ample resources to arm itself and its terrorist proxies, leading to the 2019 attack on the world's largest oil facility, in Saudi Arabia, and eventually to Hamas's barbaric attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The U.S. must revisit the core assumptions underlying its previous negotiations with Iran. The Iranians are demanding the right to enrich uranium. Conceding this would allow Iran to haggle over quantities. That's a fundamental mistake because it gives Iran cover to develop centrifuges for enrichment, amass enriched uranium, and ultimately shorten its path to weapons-grade fissile material. Another Iranian demand to which Washington too readily capitulated in 2015 was that time limits be placed on the nuclear program restrictions. This means that even if Iran adheres to every word of the deal, it will still be able to develop nuclear capabilities. All it needs to do is wait. Centrifuges are only one part of the nuclear development process. Facilities involved in any part of the process must all be dismantled or at least subject to restrictions, and Iran must not be allowed to develop or stockpile missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The writer, former head of the research division of IDF military intelligence, leads the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.