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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/On-being-taken-to-the-cleaners-334128
On Being Taken to the Cleaners by Iran
(Jerusalem Post) Hirsh Goodman - Iran already has the infrastructure, raw materials, scientific know-how, manpower, resources and now, new trading partners and cash, to become a nuclear power virtually at the drop of a hat. Possessing a military nuclear capacity is a cornerstone of this Iranian regime's thinking. They have starved their country and invested billions to get it. They want it for reasons of regional dominance, control of the Gulf and, primarily, to negate the world's ability to tell it what to do. It gives them deterrence, incredible leverage on the international stage, and strategic parity with the world powers. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was at the table when Iran decided to go nuclear and has navigated the process ever since. Khamenei will not throw his baby into the fire, of that you can be absolutely sure. He will do everything he can to save it, even if requires a bit of duplicity along the way. If a final agreement is not reached within the six-month deadline, there will almost surely be an extension to "allow diplomacy to take its course." Then there will be another extension, and another. The Geneva deal has relieved the economic stranglehold on Iran; it has made a mockery of UN Security Council resolutions, and, above all, it has left Khamenei with a nuclear option that is as easy to unfreeze as a TV dinner in a microwave. America and the rest of the free world had waited for years for the yoke of the ayatollahs to be lifted from the Iranian people. This move ensures that it will remain in place for a long time to come. The wrong people have come away strengthened. This has not been a defeat for Israel. It has been a defeat for democracy and world peace. Netanyahu is right to be screaming. So would you, if you saw your best friend and ally taken to the cleaners by so obvious a conman, and a provably dangerous one at that.