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A Narrow Agreement on Iran Nukes Would Be a Disaster

(Tablet) Elliott Abrams - Under a narrow agreement with Iran, the U.S. would release certain sanctions - for example, allowing Iran to collect $7 billion in frozen accounts in South Korea - if Iran made certain moves, such as halting enrichment of uranium above a low percentage and exporting the uranium it has already enriched above that percentage. From the Israeli perspective, such an agreement would be a disaster. It does not stop Iranian enrichment. It does not stop replacement of more primitive centrifuges with new generations of centrifuges that enrich far faster. It does not require Iran to account for the previous military work on a bomb it has clearly done. It does not require Iran to permit full International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, which Iran has prohibited for several years now. Israel should continue to explain patiently, forcefully, and diplomatically why such an agreement is dangerous. Moreover, Israel should be very clear that it will not consider itself bound by such an agreement. It has said exactly that, retaining the right to act to protect itself. Israel was not represented in the diplomacy and will have to take care of itself. The writer, a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was the State Department's Special Representative for Iran in 2020.
2022-01-13 00:00:00
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