Ron Ben-Yishai Warns a New Iran Deal Could Buy Time but Leave a Long-Term Threat

Veteran military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai said on Sunday that the emerging understandings with Iran, brokered by the Trump administration, amount to a temporary tactical gain but could create a serious strategic danger later. In an interview on the Radio Galey Israel program "Puti and Zmari Be'am," he argued that the immediate effect would be to slow Iran's path to a bomb, in a way similar to earlier agreements.

Ben-Yishai called the apparent arrangement an extension of the Obama-era deal for another 10 years. "According to what has been published, what Trump and we achieved regarding the nuclear program is an extension of the Obama agreement for another ten years," he said, adding that Iran's ability both to enrich uranium and access highly enriched material is "very small."

At the same time, he warned that such an agreement would not erase Iran's accumulated scientific and technological know-how. He said the main vulnerability is the period after signing, especially if sanctions are lifted or frozen and money begins flowing back to Tehran. "They still have the knowledge," he said. "They know how to build new centrifuges, they know how to build an enrichment system, and if they have the resources that are being released now, they can develop the nuclear program and the missile system again in a short time."