Brent Scowcroft Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Matthew Kroenig writes for USA Today on the recent extension of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries:
An extension of the international negotiations with Iran may be better than the talks breaking down altogether, but an indefinite string of extensions does not make for a sound long-term strategy.
Continued extensions leave Iran as a nuclear weapons threshold state, raising the risk that Iran eventually builds nuclear weapons. In addition, even if Iran never builds nuclear weapons, its current capability causes severe challenges for global non-proliferation efforts, Middle Eastern security and human rights inside Iran.
If we were prepared to live with this situation, we could simply declare the status quo to be a “comprehensive” deal and be done with the matter. But we are not. The temporary deal struck last year was never meant to be permanent.