A Year of Too-Great Expectations for Iran

If all goes according to plan, sometime during 2014 Iran will sign a comprehensive final agreement to end a nuclear crisis that, over the course of a decade, has threatened to escalate into a war in the Middle East. But in light of the unresolved issues that must be addressed, it would be unwise to bet that events will unfold as planned. Unrealistic expectations about the Iran deal need to be revised downward.

 

Turkish policymakers are keenly aware that the interim nuclear deal concluded last month between Iran and the P5+1 may upend the Middle East’s fragile balance of power.

 

More than 200 Iranian MPs have presented a draft bill to the Majlis Presiding Board which obliges the government to enrich uranium up to a purity of 60 percent if the U.S. Senate approves new sanctions against Iran.

 

The recently successful negotiation of a global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) covering conventional arms might renew interest in the negotiation of an export control treaty for nuclear commodities.

  

South Korea may have to build up to five nuclear power plants between 2025 and 2035 to meet a target of 43,000 MW of nuclear power under a plan to reduce the proportion of nuclear in the total energy supply, government officials said on Monday.

 

Russia's first Project 885M Yasen-class attack submarine, the Severodvinsk, was handed over to the navy on Monday, a defense industry source told RIA Novosti.