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Talking to Tehran: Curb Your Enthusiasm

(Economist-UK) Given Iran's long history of evasiveness on the nuclear issue, the suspicion is that it is merely buying time for its centrifuges. Looming in the background is the precedent of North Korea, which agreed on a disarmament deal with America in 2005, then reneged on it and has now become a nuclear power. Obama's terms therefore should focus on denying Iran the possibility of a swift "breakout" to unveiling a bomb. That means forcing it to stop enriching uranium beyond 20% (and shipping its existing stockpile of material above that level to a third party). Ideally it would suspend all enrichment activity at its Fordo facility, which is buried deep in the bowels of a mountain (and thus hard to attack) and delay commissioning the Arak nuclear reactor, due to come online next year, which could give the regime an alternative plutonium route to a bomb.
2013-10-01 00:00:00
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