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Expert: Time Remains to Explore Non-Military Options against Iran Nukes

(Jerusalem Post) Oren Kessler - Discussing Iran's nuclear program, a former high-ranking Israeli official said in a closed seminar at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel lAviv University: "Israel is independent - it will do what it has to do....Israelis have surprised the world in the past, and we could do the same again." He said time remains to explore non-military options against Tehran. "Crippling sanctions can be effective," he said. "Now the Iranians are paying attention - during the first four rounds of sanctions, they weren't." The former official said he believes Iran intends to reach "breakout capacity" whereby it would develop all the capabilities to build an atomic weapon but would remain at the nuclear threshold until a time of its choosing. "Iran will likely be at that threshold for years, not months," he said. A policy of containing or deterring a nuclear Iran, he said, is all but impossible: "Are we able to contain a non-nuclear Iran? Hardly. How then will we ever contain or deter a nuclear one?"
2012-02-24 00:00:00
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