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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/08/13/avoid-nuclear-armed-iran-column/31548551/
On Iran, Israel Is America's True Friend
(USA Today) Tzipi Hotovely - As the country with the most at stake, Israel favors a diplomatic solution with Iran more than anyone. But this does not mean that any diplomatic outcome is satisfactory. The initial positions of the international community - which were largely conceded - suggest what an acceptable deal might look like. Such an agreement would insist on the complete suspension of enrichment and dismantlement of related infrastructure, and on Iran's acceptance of 'anytime-anywhere' inspections of all of its nuclear and military facilities, to reliably verify this suspension. If Iran were not led by an aggressive regime inspired by a violent ideology, openly committed to eliminating Israel, heavily invested in fomenting insurrection throughout the Middle East and revealed to be pursuing military know-how relevant only to the use of nuclear weapons, its nuclear program could be assessed like that of other countries. But it is all of those things. No one concludes from criminals' unrepentant wrongdoing that law-enforcement authorities should just acquiesce to their criminal conduct. This is especially true when dealing with a brutal regime that has a proven track record of disdain for the common principles to which law-abiding countries adhere. Iran's openly belligerent attitude towards the U.S. should serve as a wake-up call to any with doubts regarding the true mentality of this regime. If the threat posed by this deal weren't genuine, Israel would have no interest in serving as an isolated voice of dissent. But we would be remiss in not doing everything possible to respectfully alert the U.S. to the very real perils inherent in it. That is what true friendship is about. The writer is deputy foreign minister of Israel.