Former Top US Officials Say One-Year Not Enough Time to Stop Iran Nuclear Breakout
Former top US officials have said that one year would provide insufficient warning-time to detect an Iranian reversal on a nuclear agreement and take action against the violations. The assessment contradicts the Obama Administration’s official position.
This estimation, put forward by former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Deputy Director-General for Safeguards at the IAEA Olli Heinonen, and former State Department Official Ray Takeyh is more in line with Israel’s assessment on the time it would take for the world to act if Iran decided to violate a nuclear deal and sprint towards the creation of a bomb.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, the three officials noted that Secretary Kerry’s defense of the current agreement under negotiation with Iran boiled down to the claim that, “the terms will leave Iran at least a year away from obtaining a nuclear bomb, thus giving the world plenty of time to react to infractions.”