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Source: http://www.inss.org.il/publications.php?cat=21&incat=&read=3351
The Nuclear Fuel Deal with Iran: Losing Sight of the Broader Picture?
[Institute for National Security Affairs-Tel Aviv University] Emily B. Landau and Ephraim Asculai - The emerging nuclear fuel deal between the U.S., Russia, France, and Iran - whether it is actually implemented or not - is shaping up as another point Iran has scored to fend off international efforts that would cease its uranium enrichment activities. Iran has made it absolutely clear that it has no intention of giving up either its present capabilities or its nuclear activities in Natanz, Arak, and any other facility it may have in return for this deal. If Iran continues its uranium enrichment activities (as it avows it will), it would be able to replenish its low-enriched uranium stocks in less than a year. The deal was not conceived as part of a grand U.S. strategy for dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions, but was rather the outgrowth of the specific Iranian request to the IAEA for more fuel for its Tehran nuclear research reactor. Despite being under IAEA safeguards, this reactor has been used in the past for weapons-related research - the production of minute quantities of plutonium.