Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California, discusses the power struggle between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Khamenei in Iran; how Ahmadinejad’s appointment of a well-regarded moderate foreign minister could help achieve a compromise with the US on a low-enriched uranium swap deal and Iran’s nuclear enrichment program in general, as well as easing the sanctions that are crippling Iran’s economy; Hillary Clinton’s less-hawkish rhetoric on Iran’s civilian nuclear program; a tally of damage done to Iran’s centrifuges from the Stuxnet computer virus and the potential for a Chernobyl-scale event at the Bushehr reactor; and a brief reminder that industrial sabotage is generally considered a crime (but don’t hold your breath on anyone in the supposed joint US/Israel operation going to jail).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download