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Iran's Nuclear Sunset: A Strategically Fatal Deal
(Al Arabiya) Majid Rafizadeh - The Iranians have obtained an unprecedented level of compromises from the White House, removing crucial restrictions against Iran's nuclear program, ensuring the lifting of sanctions as well as the ultimate legal right and international legitimacy to become a nuclear threshold state. More fundamentally, the objectives of halting Iran's nuclear program permanently have altered into limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions for a period of time while removing the sanctions, and ultimately rewarding Tehran with a sunset period which will ensure that Iran will be a nuclear state after 10 years. The primary objective of the nuclear talks was to halt Iran's nuclear program permanently, hence eliminating the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the region, and removing the strategic threat that a nuclear armed Iran might pose in the region through its regional hegemonic ambitions. The argument that Iran's political system will change dramatically and fundamentally within 10 years is totally unrealistic. In fact, a nuclear deal with a sunset clause is but a temporary deal thoroughly rewarding Iran, ensuring a nuclear arm race in the region, and further destabilizing the region. The writer is an Iranian-American political scientist and scholar at Harvard University.