(Weekly Standard) Michael Makovsky - President Obama argues, "If Iran cheats, the world will know," and "If we see something suspicious, we will inspect it." But the promised inspections regime will not be intrusive enough to detect Iranian cheating or to thwart any breakout attempts in time. Iran has a long and proud history of cheating on its international nuclear agreements. In the past year alone Iran has violated its international agreements at least three times. 1.Last November the IAEA caught Iran operating a new advanced IR-5 centrifuge. 2.As of February 2015, Iran had an excess of some 300 kg. of low-enriched uranium, in violation of the interim deal. 3.Iran has been stonewalling about answering outstanding IAEA concerns about the possible military dimensions of its nuclear program. Moreover, U.S. intelligence services have a dismal track record of detecting clandestine nuclear efforts and predicting breakout - in North Korea, Pakistan, and India, for example. Permitting Iran to keep its vast nuclear infrastructure largely intact only compounds the challenges the U.S. will have in detecting Iranian cheating. The writer, a former special assistant in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, is chief executive officer of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.
2015-04-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive