Steinitz to US: Israel’s ‘minimum’ on Iran is no enrichment
Steinitz to US: Israel’s ‘minimum’ on Iran is no enrichment | JPost | Israel News.
WASHINGTON – Strategic Affairs and Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told his American counterparts in the Israel-US strategic dialogue that Israel’s “minimum” in any deal with Iran was no uranium enrichment.
Steinitz described his meeting Wednesday with a US team led by William Burns, the deputy secretary of state, as long and productive. Such meetings take place about twice a year.
Steinitz, speaking Thursday to Israeli journalists, said his message to the Americans was that the Iranians must be stripped of any enrichment capacity, describing that as “the minimal agreement for Israel to live with it in peace.”
Israeli officials have not said what the country would do should the United States and Iran strike a deal short of Israel’s demands, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a military strike to keep Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capacity.
The United States led major powers in renewing talks with Iran this month aimed at making more transparent that country’s nuclear program.
The talks were launched after the election this summer of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who campaigned on outreach to the West, partly as a means of relieving crippling sanctions.
Rouhani says he is ready to make more transparent a nuclear program he insists is for peaceful purposes, but he has ruled out any permanent end to enrichment.
The Obama administration has not publicly said whether it would accept continued enrichment, but reports have said that Western diplomats may accept uranium enrichment at 3.5-5 percent, well short of the 90 percent needed for weaponization.
Steinitz said that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is such that even at 3.5 percent enrichment, it could break out to weaponization within months and would be able in its first year to manufacture 5-7 bombs.
Steinitz, who also met with lawmakers in Congress and Vice President Joe Biden during his stay, said he backed intensifying sanctions as a means of increasing leverage. Some leading congressional lawmakers back such an intensification; the Obama administration says that such a step now could scuttle the renewed talks.
The next round of talks between the major powers and Iran is set for next month.
WarSclerotic 
October 26, 2013 at 10:05 AM
Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly :
http://www.madisdead.blogspot.co.il/2013/10/netanyahu-un-speech-2013-video-and.html
Well, the only diplomatic solution that would work is one that fully dismantles Iran’s nuclear weapons program and prevents it from having one in the future.
First, cease all uranium enrichment. This is called for by several Security Council resolutions. Second, remove from Iran’s territory the stockpiles of enriched uranium. Third, dismantle the infrastructure for nuclear breakout capability, including the underground facility at Qom and the advanced centrifuges in Natanz.
And, four, stop all work at the heavy water reactor in Iraq aimed at the production of plutonium. These steps would put an end to Iran’s nuclear weapons program and eliminate its breakout capability.
Steinitz is emphasizing Netanyahu’s first condition.
The key question is whether Israel would under US pressure agree to the less good, but still reasonable deal?
A less good, but still reasonable, agreement would be a compromise that meticulously addresses the critical elements of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran would retain its right to enrich uranium, but only to a low 3.5%-5% nonmilitary grade.
From what Steinitz said, Netanyahu would only accept the one where Iran dismantles the nuclear program entirely, but is Netanayhu going to preempt Iran if they get the less good agreement?
The ideal agreement for the so-called P5+1 (the permanent United Nations Security Council members—the U.S., Russia, China, the U.K. and France—plus Germany) consists of an Iranian commitment to dismantle its nuclear program. Tehran would stop enrichment at all levels—even for nonmilitary purposes. It would close Fordow, its underground enrichment facility, and the Arak reactor, which is capable of producing plutonium for a bomb. Iran would also have to ship out its entire stockpile of enriched uranium, which today is enough to produce five to seven bombs.
October 26, 2013 at 1:24 PM
We said it in the past, we are saying it now. Plus, for our ideas wont be misunderstood, we’ll formulate them crystal clear :
Not the Iranian nuclear program must be dismantled, but the Iranian state and Iran, as a regional power, should be terminated.
That can be achieved with an incisive first strike, targeting all the relevant sites in Iran :
1. The electrical power grid.
2. Command centers.
3. Missiles silos.
4. The air power.
5. The navy and navy’s facilities.
6. The petrol facilities
7. The heads of the regime and the army
8. The nuclear sites.
These should be the priorities, and they can be achieved in the first couple of hours from the beginning of the operation. Only conventional means should be used; the long range arm of the Israeli Army, the Jericho missiles, should play a decisive role in the opening. After that, the IAF can enter the Iranian air space with the impunity and deliver the finish move. An armada of undisclosed till now drones will also intervene in the early hours of the operation, for documenting, transmitting info and, yes, taking an active part in the operation when necessary. Will be more components to this operation and them should not be debate here.
After this blitz operation, Iran should cease to exist as a state.
Its economy and military been, practically, destroyed, Iran will have another priorities in the future for surviving. Its divided population might seek independence and many more other elements will appear.
This is the plan the Israeli leadership should implement from the start and not waiting for an Iranian retaliation after an Israeli ”surgical” first strike.
[ Observation : The ”surgical” strike notion is not applicable in the Iranian case and we are claiming that this statement, here, is a novelty. That is true because the magnitude of the country, the number of sites, the logistics and the distance. Israel cannot afford to endanger its pilots, sending in first the IAF, which will have to overcome many obstacles, before they even will get to be above the nuclear sites. This is why, a kick in the balls is imperious necessary here, before the Israeli jets will effectively enter the Iranian aerial space. That kick will be delivered by the Jericho missiles, in any necessary numbers for the job to be done.]
October 26, 2013 at 1:08 PM
Forget not the so called medical research reactor, they are used to make isotopes, and what happens you can make nicely PU in these reactors
October 26, 2013 at 1:11 PM
http://www.isisnucleariran.org/sites/facilities/tehran-research-reactor-trr/
October 26, 2013 at 1:12 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope
238U + n → 239U
239U → 239Np + e− + ν
e
239Np → 239Pu + e− + ν
e
239Pu + n → 240Pu
240Pu + n → 241Pu