Jerusalem Post 10/26/2013 08:49
WASHINGTON - Strategic Affairs and Intelligence
Minister Yuval Steinitz told
his American counterparts in the Israel-US strategic dialogue that Israel’s
“minimum” in any deal with Iran was no uranium enrichment.
Steinitz described his meeting Wednesday with a
US team led by William Burns, the deputy secretary of state, as long and
productive. Such meetings take place about twice a year.
Steinitz, speaking Thursday to Israeli
journalists, said his message to the Americans was that the Iranians must be
stripped of any enrichment capacity, describing that as “the minimal agreement
for Israel to live with it in peace.”
Israeli officials have not said what the country
would do should the United States and Iran strike a deal short of Israel’s
demands, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a military
strike to keep Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capacity.
The United States led major powers in renewing talks with Iran this month aimed at making
more transparent that country’s nuclear program.
The talks were launched after the election this
summer of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who campaigned on outreach to the
West, partly as a means of relieving crippling sanctions.
Rouhani says he is ready to make more
transparent a nuclear program he insists is for peaceful purposes, but he has
ruled out any permanent end to enrichment.
The Obama administration has not publicly said
whether it would accept continued enrichment, but reports have said that
Western diplomats may accept uranium enrichment at 3.5-5 percent, well short of
the 90 percent needed for weaponization.
Steinitz said that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure
is such that even at 3.5 percent enrichment, it could break out to
weaponization within months and would be able in its first year to manufacture
5-7 bombs.
Steinitz, who also met with lawmakers in Congress
and Vice President Joe Biden during his stay, said he backed intensifying
sanctions as a means of increasing leverage. Some leading congressional
lawmakers back such an intensification; the Obama administration says that such
a step now could scuttle the renewed talks.
The next round of talks between the major powers
and Iran is set for next month.
Well, the only diplomatic solution that would work is one that fully dismantles Iran's nuclear weapons program and prevents it from having one in the future.
First,
cease all uranium enrichment. This
is called for by several Security Council resolutions. Second, remove from
Iran's territory the stockpiles of enriched uranium. Third, dismantle the
infrastructure for nuclear breakout capability, including the underground
facility at Qom and the advanced centrifuges in Natanz.
And,
four, stop all work at the heavy water reactor in Iraq aimed at the production
of plutonium. These steps would put an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program
and eliminate its breakout capability.
Good. Netanyahu is sticking to his point.
