The Range of Options on Iran

September 10, 2012 | Edited by Leah Fae Cochran

Tough options - Bill Keller of The New York Times analyzes the question: Could we live with a nuclear Iran? Keller reviews the common arguments against containing a nuclear Iran including the notion that a nuclear Iran would encourage bolder regional interference from Iran proxies such as Hezbollah, that an Iranian bomb would spark a Mideast arms race, and that a crisis between Iran and Israel might escalate to a nuclear level.

-- “What statesmen do when faced with bad options is create new ones,” he concludes. “The [other] choice in this case is to negotiate a deal that lets Iran enrich uranium for civilian use (as it is entitled to do under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty), that applies rigorous safeguards (because Iran cheats), that gradually relaxes sanctions and brings this wayward country into the community of more-or-less civilized nations.” Full op-ed here. http://nyti.ms/PhKqvA

Quote - “We’re not setting deadlines. We’re convinced that we have more time to focus on these sanctions, to do everything we can to bring Iran to a good-faith negotiation,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview Sunday. Full story here. http://buswk.co/OkhggG

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Strategic stalling - “What others see as ineffectual temporizing, mixed signals, blurred lines, and contradiction may all amount to wily strategy,” writes James Carroll of Obama’s position on Iran. Carroll argues that the Obama strategy is allowing the situation to de-fuse over time, giving diplomacy a chance to work.

-- “Obama’s capacity to stand firmly against successive waves of rattling sabers, with a preference for blurred lines over red lines, suggests a different approach to the exercise of power...Hence Obama’s refusal to let the window for diplomatic resolution close. ” Full op-ed at The Boston Globe. http://b.globe.com/Q8qXgR

Tweet - @RetJoatState: #SecClinton in #Russia: "We are signing a Joint Statement on Interregional Cooperation to encourage collaboration ..." http://goo.gl/eszC2

Not an option- Germany, Britain and France called for new EU sanctions against Iran on Friday. Also, Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said Sunday that an Iranian nuclear weapon is “not an option” and reiterated that there is still time for diplomacy to work.

-- “We call on the government in Iran to come back to the table with substantial offers, which is very necessary and very crucial at this time," Westerwelle said. Reuters has the story. http://reut.rs/OjpNR0

Local safety concerns on MOX - The US Department of Energy plans to test using MOX fuel in the Browns Ferry nuclear plant, despite an August Nuclear Regulatory Commission report that found safety at the plant “seriously lacking,” writes Mike Hollis of The Huntsville Times.

-- “That's no place for TVA and DOE to be running an experiment with radioactive material in an aging nuclear plant under increased supervision because of major safety problems,” Hollis writes. Full op-ed here. http://bit.ly/Svckao

CBM - After reviewing a database of Indo-Pakistani confidence building measures (CBMs) kept over the course of 20 years, Michael Krepon analyzes trends of the two countries’ efforts to build trust. The CBMs have a long history of being “atmospheric” in nature: “low-cost way[s] to signal a desire to improve relations.” These small steps, although numerous, have not led to harder-hitting military or nuclear CBMs that would require more political capital, writes Krepon.

-- “This is a meager list of accomplishments for a quarter-century of diplomatic engagement. In the same timeline, the United States and the Soviet Union went from a fierce nuclear arms competition to deep cuts in nuclear forces. Other military-related CBMs between Pakistan and India can easily be envisioned — such as a cruise missile flight test notification agreement, an incidents at sea agreement, and a withdrawal from current positions on the Siachen Glacier – but the timing is not yet ripe for these accords.” Full post at Arms Control Wonk.http://bit.ly/dkcovo

Superfund - Uravan, a Colorado town declared a Superfund site and razed in the 1980s over unsafe levels of contamination from its uranium mill weighs the economic benefits and safety risks of restarting milling operations. Bloomberg Businessweek has the story. http://buswk.co/Rl4nDr