(Politico) Michael Crowley - Concerns that a final deal restricting Iran's nuclear program will "sunset" any agreement as early as 2025 have thrown a new jolt into Israeli officials. "Ten years is nothing. It's tomorrow from our point of view," said Yaakov Amidror, who served as national security adviser to Netanyahu. "It's a license for Iran to be a threshold nuclear state." "When do bad people become good people? When a time is over - or when they change?" Critics say that after the expiration of any deal, Iran would be free to produce as much fuel for nuclear weapons as it likes. Citing reports of a 10-15-year sunset period at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, the panel's top Democrat, Robert Menendez, called that "a matter of time that is far less than anyone envisioned." Obama officials deny that any specific sunset clause has been agreed to in the talks. "We certainly can't know what Iran will look like in 10 to 15 years," said Gary Samore, who handled the Iran nuclear portfolio in the Obama White House until 2013. A 10-year time frame would be a "catastrophic mistake," said Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations. Iran is "a system permeated by ideology, so Khamenei dying tomorrow is not likely to change the system dramatically."
2015-02-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive