(Israel Hayom) Zalman Shoval - As the July 20 deadline draws near for a potential nuclear deal between the West and Iran, the chances of such an agreement being reached seem low. The Americans and their allies are fed up with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's polite diversion tactics, and his proposed outline for the agreement falls vastly short of meeting their demands. American diplomats underscored that the Iranian position on several key points - such as the number of centrifuges and amount of enriched uranium - was far from the West's position on those matters. So far, the Americans seem steadfast in their demands, that while the West is willing to abide 1,000 centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, such allowances do not extend to any hidden facilities; and that uranium enrichment could be performed only up to 5% - not to 20%. Publicly, the Iranians have adamantly rejected all of the West's demands, and now it is a matter of who blinks first - unless the crisis in Iraq brings about an extreme change of circumstance. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
2014-06-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive