Proliferation

Many hazards line the path to a comprehensive nuclear accord with Iran, including the unraveling of multilateral sanctions and efforts by the Iranian parliament to assert a role in national decisionmaking.

Middle Easterners fear the White House will return to bad habits by dropping its demands on Syria in order to appease Iran.

A viable comprehensive solution will need to resolve concerns about possible military dimensions, eliminate an automatic sunset clause, and define clear-cut incentives for compliance and disincentives for noncompliance.

BICOM Senior Visiting Fellow Brig. Gen. (res.) Michael Herzog gave his assessment of the Iran deal and its implications in a BICOM phone briefing on November 25. The following is a summary of his assessment, covering the positives and negatives of the interim deal, concerns around the endgame, and Israel's

Now that an Iran nuclear deal has been signed, the next challenge is implementation. This step will entail at least two major challenges: interpreting the agreement and progressing toward what the deal calls "the final step of a comprehensive solution."

Only time and U.S. actions will tell whether the recent agreement is a step toward Iran's denuclearization or its rise as a nuclear power.

Download the text of the Joint Plan of Action agreed in Geneva on November 24, 2013, between the P5+1 nations (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and Iran.

The requirements of a credible, sustainable agreement are at odds with Tehran's goal of confirming its status as a nuclear threshold state while preserving ambiguity about its capabilities.

New rifts in U.S.-Israeli cooperation could mean that time is running out for peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue.