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Daybreak: Evidence of Military Program Emerges

Plus where talks could go and oil can’t, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
May 14, 2012
The explosives-testing facility at Parchin.(AP)
The explosives-testing facility at Parchin.(AP)

• This sketch is of an explosives containment chamber which you’d want for testing military components of a nuclear program. Such a thing apparently exists at Iran’s Parchin facility, which David Albright discussed Friday. International inspectors hold weaponization talks in Vienna today. [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]

• David Ignatius lays out the expected parameters of the next phase of the nuclear negotiations—under five percent enriched uranium in exchange for fuel rods—as well as a possible long-term resolution, in which a “firewall” exists between a permitted civilian program and an illicit military one. [WP]

• Meanwhile, Iranian oil tankers are switching off their satellite tracking systems (which is illegal) in a sign of how difficult they are finding places to unload their cargo due to sanctions. [WP]

• Speaking of, the European Union upped sanctions against Syria. [EU]

• A good primer on the emotional, “culture war”-style stakes of the Tal Law debate, which was re-joined with the formation of the new Israeli government. [WP]

• Fear of war-crimes lawsuits are an increasing motivator of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s behavior, from ordering the evacuation of a briefly occupied house in Hebron last month to likely not prolonging the court-ordered razing of the Ulpana neighborhood in a West Bank settlement. [WP]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.