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An Unanswered Question About Iran's Nuclear Program
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/09/01/436593083/an-unanswered-question-about-irans-nuclear-program
An Unanswered Question About Iran's Nuclear Program
September 01, 2015 2:53 PM ET
Michele Kelemen
<snip>
"We're not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another. We know what they did," Kerry said this summer. "We have absolute knowledge with respect to the certain military activities they were engaged in. What we're concerned about is going forward."
Even supporters of the deal, though, say Kerry was overselling that point. The U.S. believes that Iran experimented with nuclear weapons components in the past. But Iran has stonewalled international inspectors in the past and the U.S. does not have "absolute knowledge," according to a former Obama administration official, Robert Einhorn.
<snip>
Einhorn, who is now with the Brookings Institution, says it was never in the cards that Iran would come fully clean on this question.
"It would be good if the Iranians made a full confession about their past nuclear work," he said. "They are not going to do that because it would contradict their narrative that they only have a peaceful program."
<snip>
An Unanswered Question About Iran's Nuclear Program
September 01, 2015 2:53 PM ET
Michele Kelemen
<snip>
"We're not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another. We know what they did," Kerry said this summer. "We have absolute knowledge with respect to the certain military activities they were engaged in. What we're concerned about is going forward."
Even supporters of the deal, though, say Kerry was overselling that point. The U.S. believes that Iran experimented with nuclear weapons components in the past. But Iran has stonewalled international inspectors in the past and the U.S. does not have "absolute knowledge," according to a former Obama administration official, Robert Einhorn.
<snip>
Einhorn, who is now with the Brookings Institution, says it was never in the cards that Iran would come fully clean on this question.
"It would be good if the Iranians made a full confession about their past nuclear work," he said. "They are not going to do that because it would contradict their narrative that they only have a peaceful program."
<snip>