Brent Scowcroft Center Resident Senior Fellow Robert Manning writes for The National on the similarities between Japan and Iran with regard to their nuclear capabilities:
Surprising as it may seem, Japan’s experience may offer some helpful ways to reduce US Congressional and GCC scepticism of the Iran nuclear deal.
In effect, a nuclear deal will leave Iran something of a “virtual nuclear state”, a status long held by Japan, with technical capabilities to obtain a bomb, but constraints from doing so.