(Wall Street Journal) Bret Stephens - Iran lies and prevaricates - about the breadth of its nuclear programs; about their purpose; about the quality of its cooperation with UN nuclear watchdogs; about its record of sponsoring terrorism from Argentina to Bulgaria to Washington, D.C.; about its efforts to topple Arab governments (Bahrain) or colonize them (Lebanon); about its role in the butchery of Syria; about its official attitude toward the Holocaust. How should the U.S. negotiate? Mark Dubowitz from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who helped design some of the most effective sanctions against Iran, offered this: "Effective on October 16, any financial institution providing Iran with access to, or use of, its overseas financial reserves for any purpose with the exception of permissible humanitarian trade will be cut off from the U.S. financial system." The idea is to push forward Iran's "economic cripple date" ahead of its "undetectable breakout date" - the moment when the regime can build a bomb in secret before the West can stop it.
2013-10-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive