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Israel: World Powers Softening on Iran's Nuke Program

(Ha'aretz) Barak Ravid - "A month ago, the powers presented a very hard line on the matter of uranium enrichment and agreed to leave only a symbolic enrichment capacity of 300 to 500 centrifuges, to give the Iranians an honorable out," said one senior Israeli official who deals with the Iranian nuclear program. "But after the last round, we became concerned that the powers hinted to the Iranians that they'd be willing to talk about a much larger number of centrifuges remaining in Iran's hands." According to Israel's information, the powers' new stance is that Iran can retain 2,000 to 4,000 centrifuges. "In that case, Iran would remain a nuclear threshold state," he said. "It would retain an enrichment capability that would enable it, within a short time, to break out to a nuclear bomb the moment it decided to do so." Israel's message to the powers is that any agreement with Iran must be based on prevention, meaning the dismantling its nuclear program, rather than solely on enhanced inspections aimed at detecting cheating.
2014-06-26 00:00:00
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