|
Trending Topics
|
Closer, But Still No Deal on Iran
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - A tentative plan was floated this month to reduce the threat posed by Iran's heavy-water reactor under construction at Arak. The Arak compromise formula was outlined recently in the journal Arms Control Today. It proposes feeding the reactor with low-enriched fuel and operating it at lower power. The output would be more of the medical isotopes Iran says it needs and much less of the plutonium that the West fears could fuel a bomb. Iranian and Western negotiators are now beginning to draft proposed language for a final, comprehensive pact, with renewed focus on the July 20 deadline. The trickiest remaining problem is limiting Iranian enrichment to a level consistent with a civilian nuclear program. The details of a possible agreement are visible, but not yet the will in revolutionary Iran to compromise.