Time is running out for dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions

There is a real danger that Iran acquires a nuclear capability before the US-led coalition works out what it is prepared to do to stop it. As David Ignatius writes in the Washington Post today, there isn’t any attractive solution to this problem:

“The quiet, deniable covert activities undertaken so far haven’t stopped the Iranian program, and they’re not likely to do so in the future. There is no magic bullet. The best hope of stopping Iran from making a bomb is diplomacy, backed by the threat of tough sanctions, backed by the ultimate threat of overt military power”.

“Most of us believe that it’s one to three years [until Iran develops a nuclear weapon] depending on assumptions on where they are right now. They are moving closer, clearly, and they continue to do that.”