Why the Iran offer might be a good idea

By backing away from the recent offer to have a French consortium enrich uranium on Iranian soil, the United States and its allies are missing out on a perfect opportunity to squeeze Iran. True, the proposal raises a number of issues. First and foremost, how can we trust the Iranians with any sort of domestic ...

606840_nuclear5.jpg
606840_nuclear5.jpg

By backing away from the recent offer to have a French consortium enrich uranium on Iranian soil, the United States and its allies are missing out on a perfect opportunity to squeeze Iran. True, the proposal raises a number of issues. First and foremost, how can we trust the Iranians with any sort of domestic enrichment program given their dubious behavior in the past? However, given the current impasse, perhaps we have no choice. With Chinese, French, and Russian opposition, sanctions on Iran are unlikely to pass the U.N. Security Council; a full-scale ground invasion is unfeasible; and a selective bombing campaign would only succeed in one thing: convincing the mullahs that they need nuclear arms.

By backing away from the recent offer to have a French consortium enrich uranium on Iranian soil, the United States and its allies are missing out on a perfect opportunity to squeeze Iran. True, the proposal raises a number of issues. First and foremost, how can we trust the Iranians with any sort of domestic enrichment program given their dubious behavior in the past? However, given the current impasse, perhaps we have no choice. With Chinese, French, and Russian opposition, sanctions on Iran are unlikely to pass the U.N. Security Council; a full-scale ground invasion is unfeasible; and a selective bombing campaign would only succeed in one thing: convincing the mullahs that they need nuclear arms.

The West should have embraced the offer today with legally-binding and internationally-recognized conditions, such as full IAEA access to all Iranian nuclear sites and final say for the French government in the screening and hiring of Iranian personnel. By explicitly tying these conditions to Iran’s previous noncompliance of the NPT, the West could have assuaged any fears that all NPT-compliant enrichment of uranium will be punished. The Iranians would have reneged in the face of those conditions, but  then the responsibility is back on them. In short, the French option would add to the evidence that Iran is the belligerent party.

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