[{"sender": "Jeffrey Epstein [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "recipients": ["Larry Summers"], "timestamp": "2/15/2013 4:52:58 PM", "subject": null, "body": "take-it-or-leave-it deal by the U.S. on the\nnuclear issue is the wrong strategy\n\nRay Takeyh\n\nFebruary 14, 2013 -- On Feb. 26, the United States and Iran will once\nmore resume their diplomatic ritual, in the so-called six-party talks, over\nIran's disputed nuclear program. As the two perennial adversaries eye one\nanother, there are competing paradigms about how to deal with Tehran.\n\nAn emerging school of thought suggests that the best means of \"testing\"\nIran is to offer it a final nuclear agreement that presumably promises\nmeasurable relief from sanctions for significant Iranian concessions. Iran's\nfailure to grasp such an offer would then conclusively demonstrate to both\ndomestic and international audiences that the cause of the impasse is not\nAmerican belligerence but Iranian truculence.\n\nBut this approach fails to recognize that an arms-control process is\nnecessarily an incremental one, nor does it offer a practical substitute to\nthe existing step-by-step diplomacy.\n\nIran's nuclear program encompasses a vast complex of enrichment\nfacilities, centrifuge construction plants, uranium extraction companies\nand thousands of scientists working in university and government\nlaboratories. Iran is enriching uranium at both 5% and 20% levels,\nexperimenting with high-velocity centrifuges and seemingly in the process\nof constructing additional enrichment facilities.\n\nSuch a multilayered, multifaceted program can be dealt with only on a\npiecemeal basis, as the technical details and rules for inspections are too\ncomplex to be addressed in a single agreement.\n\nMoreover, should the United States offer Iran a final deal, Tehran still has\na right to contest and negotiate its provisions and offer counterproposals."}]