(CNN) -- There are "red lines," a "window of opportunity," the risk of a "zone of immunity," and plenty of other cryptic terms about Iran's nuclear program. What does it involve? Where is it leading? How and when should it be stopped or restrained?
Ordinary mortals can't know where those red lines lie; when the "weaponization" of Iran's nuclear material might be imminent; even what Iran's real intentions are. Experts and policy-makers differ about the time Iran would need to develop a nuclear weapon, the space for diplomacy, whether Iran wants a nuclear weapon as an instrument of deterrence or would use it pre-emptively. Or even whether it really is hell-bent on acquiring one.
James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee in January that Iran was "keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons...We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually build nuclear weapons."
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has no doubt. He told an audience in Washington this week: "Amazingly, some people refuse to acknowledge that Iran's goal is to develop nuclear weapons.....This duck is a nuclear duck and it's time the world started calling a duck a duck," he said.
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