‘I Would Give It an A’: Why Nuclear Experts Love the Iran Deal
Jeffrey Lewis was so eager to read the Iran nuclear deal that he woke up at 3:30 a.m., California time, to pore through all 150-plus pages of the text. Lewis is a nukes super-nerd: the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; he also runs an excellent arms control blog network and arms control podcast and has a regular arms control column in Foreign Policy. He is the person to talk to on this.
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The simple version is that the US can say “sanctions don’t come off until the agreement is implemented,” and Iran can say “sanctions come off immediately.” And that satisfies the requirements of each political system.
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So you ask, “Does it slow it down?” Yes. “Does it slow it down in a way that is verifiable?” Yes. “Does it slow it down more than bombing it would?” Yes. “Okay, good deal.”
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