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Iran - The Next Stage
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - Obama administration officials are planning strategy for the decisive second-round nuclear deal with Iran that, over the next six months, will seek a broader and tougher comprehensive agreement. These negotiations promise to be more difficult because the U.S. will seek to dismantle parts of the Iranian program, rather than simply freeze them. The negotiators' agenda: First, the U.S. wants no heavy-water reactor at Arak, rather than just a halt in supplies for it, because this reactor would generate plutonium that could be reprocessed for a bomb. Second, the U.S. will press Iran to dismantle a substantial number of its 19,000 centrifuges, perhaps more than half. Third, the U.S. will urge closure of Iran's enrichment facility at Fordow, dug into a hillside. U.S. officials don't see any sign yet that Iran wants to expand negotiations beyond the nuclear file to include regional issues.