Elliott Abrams

But that doesn't mean that they will try to build one immediately.

Well, in the short run, the continuation or the enlargement of the kind of attack that Iran did undertake during this war, which were often on civilian targets.

That is, they did try to hit military bases, but they also hit the Dubai airport.

They did at the very end hit a desalination plant in Kuwait, for example.

Particularly the power plants and desalination plants are quite vulnerable and I think are possible targets for Iran going forward.

We also have to worry about their old weapon of choice, terrorism.

I would say those are the two major problems.

We've already talked about, of course, keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed.

But again, I don't think they can do that long term.

As an American, I wish we could get everything in our final terms, you know, our great wish list.

But I think that's unrealistic.

I think it should include no enrichment of uranium in Iran and a shipment out of Iran of the highly enriched uranium for which they have absolutely no need if they're not trying to build a nuclear weapon.

followed by IAEA inspection, which are critical to prevent them from building a nuclear weapon.

The only head after that is some kind of limits on the ballistic missile system, because I think they were building so many ballistic missiles because they meant that to be protection for their nuclear program.

No one will attack us, will attack the nuclear program, because we would be able to counteract so powerfully with ballistic missiles.

The ones we just talked about are pretty visible.

I would think in the medium to longer run, there's a risk that China decides that Iran is actually a very useful ally, partly because of its oil, partly because of its poor relations with the United States.

And if China were to decide to help Iran,

build a nuclear weapon, or help Iran rebuild its military, particularly its ballistic missiles, that would be dangerous for the U.S.

and for Iran's neighbors.