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Shaping the International Environment If Iran Diplomacy Fails
(New York Times) Dennis B. Ross - Israeli leaders are signaling not just increasing impatience with the pace of diplomacy but also Israel's growing readiness to act militarily on its own against Iranian nuclear facilities. Although the U.S. and Israel share the same objective of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability, the two differ on the point at which it may become necessary to act militarily to forestall the Iranian nuclear advance. Neither America nor Israel can fully destroy the Iranian capability to build a nuclear weapon. Since 2007, when Iran mastered the full nuclear fuel cycle and the means to enrich uranium on its own, it has been too late for that. America thinks in terms of shaping an international environment so that if force becomes necessary it can be justified because diplomacy has been demonstrably exhausted and Iran will appear to have essentially brought war on itself. America should begin discussions with the P5+1 about a "day after" strategy in the event that diplomacy fails and force is used. This would signal to both Israel and Iran that we mean what we say about all options being on the table. The writer, a special assistant to President Obama for the Middle East and South Asia from 2009 to 2011, is a counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.