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On the Iran Nuclear Deal, Israel Gets a Vote

(Bloomberg) Eli Lake - In the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, Israel was not a party to the deal. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced to the world that Israeli operatives had stolen reams of detailed Iranian schematics and plans for building a nuclear weapon in 2018, he urged the audience to remember the name of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons poses an existential threat to Israel and Gulf Arab states. Thus, it's mistaken to view the strike against Fakhrizadeh through the lens of its effect on President-elect Joe Biden's goal of re-entering the nuclear deal. It's more likely that the timing had more to do with the opportunity that presented itself to take out a high-value target such as Fakhrizadeh. Most observers believed that the only chance to destroy Iran's nuclear infrastructure was an air attack. The explosions at Iranian sites over the summer suggest that much of this task can be accomplished through intelligence operations. The upshot is that any future deal with Iran will have to address Israel's security needs. In 2015, Netanyahu was willing to risk Israel's most important alliance by addressing a joint session of Congress to oppose a deal that he believed imperiled his country's future. So it's highly unlikely that Israel would be willing to end its activities in Iran so the U.S. can rejoin that same deeply flawed nuclear agreement. Israel won't give up the capability to strike inside Iran unless Iran agrees to abandon the aspects of its nuclear program suitable for building bombs.
2020-12-03 00:00:00
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