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Iran Wants the Bomb - and Sanctions Relief
(Washington Post) Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz - Defecting Iranian nuclear engineers told U.S. officials in the late 1980s that the Iranian nuclear program was designed exclusively for nuclear weapons. Everything Western intelligence services have tracked since then matches those early revelations. Yet the West expects supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guards and President Rouhani - who had a not-insignificant role in developing Iran's nuclear program in the 1990s - to admit that the U.S. (the "Great Satan") has now defeated their nuclear aspirations. Iranian leaders probably are entering negotiations to see whether Tehran can have the bomb and sanctions relief. The administration and Congress would be wise to hit Tehran with more sanctions immediately. The U.S. shouldn't be fooled by false divisions within the regime. Abandoning the long quest for atomic weapons would be an extraordinary humiliation for Iran's ruling class. That isn't going to happen unless Iran's supreme leader knows with certainty that the Islamic order is finished if he doesn't abandon the bomb. Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Iranian targets officer in the CIA's Clandestine Service, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mark Dubowitz is the foundation's executive director.