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Is the U.S. Receding to a Containment Policy on Iran?

(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Emily B. Landau and Ephraim Asculai - In March 2012, President Obama affirmed unequivocally that his policy regarding Iran's nuclear advances was a policy of prevention, not containment. Since his visit to Israel in March of this year, another round of negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran has failed, and the latest IAEA report on Iran - released May 22, 2013 - indicates that Iran's uranium enrichment and plutonium programs are creeping slowly but surely toward a situation that will soon be unstoppable. It is blatantly apparent that the "diplomatic" route for solving the Iran conundrum has failed, even though the U.S. administration has yet to admit this. In considering the next stage, can the U.S. indeed depend on the fact that it will obtain reliable information that an Iranian decision to develop nuclear weapons has been taken? If it does, will it be at a stage when there is still a realistic option of employing military force in a manner that will reverse the current trajectory toward a military nuclear capability? And most importantly, will the U.S. ultimately be willing to employ force in dealing with Iran? The writers are senior research fellows at INSS.
2013-05-27 00:00:00
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