MILLIONS OF EDUCATED and prosperous Iranians resent being isolated from the rest of the world. Until sanctions started to emasculate trade, life had been gradually improving. Now many people have lost their jobs or seen their pay and savings eroded by inflation. The government, too, is having a difficult time. Oil revenues have dwindled and allies around the region are wobbling. Is relief in sight?After nine months of nuclear talks in Geneva, the broad outlines of a possible deal with the West are becoming clear. The aim is to ensure that Iran would need about a year to build a bomb, giving the West plenty of advance warning. To achieve that, the two sides are talking about limiting Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 5% for the next decade or so, and putting the plutonium programme at Arak to irreversibly civilian use. All this would be monitored closely by international inspectors, but without forcing Iran to acknowledge past weapons tests in any detail. In return, Iran could expect a rolling (though reversible) lifting of sanctions over several years.According to one Western official involved in the negotiations, “technical issues are not the main problem.” The...
from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeM1B
No comments:
Post a Comment