US Should Use Deterrence Against Iran's Nuclear Option, Says Former Top Official

The United States should aim at deterrence, rather than containment in any deal with Iran that allows it to keep uranium enriched to 60 percent, a former top official wrote in the Washington Post.

Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, and a diplomat with long experience in the Middle East argued in an op-ed published June 23 that if reports about a new limited deal with Iran are true, the Biden administration might be changing its approach.

The deal reportedly hinges on the premise that Iran keeps its highly enriched uranium, practically making it a nuclear threshold state that could quickly decide to produce a weapon.

“Instead of seeking to prevent Iran from going nuclear as it has up until now, the United States would be tacitly shifting to a policy of accepting Iran’s nuclear status and relying on deterrence. It would be shifting from a policy of prevention to a policy of containment,” Ross argued.

He further reasoned that “Such a posture would all but guarantee nuclear proliferation across the Middle East,” where Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt may decide to obtain nuclear weapons.

“The Biden administration must therefore structure any forthcoming deal with prevention — not containment — as its goal,” Ross said advocating that first, a deal limited to the end of Biden’s first term. Second, the US should make it clear that if Iran moves toward producing a weapon it will destroy all its nuclear infrastructure.

Third, the US “should conduct exercises in the region rehearsing attacks against hardened targets to underline its seriousness,” Ross underlines.