WASHINGTON — Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz asserted Tuesday, March 4, that Iran could be “forced” to stop enriching uranium under a comprehensive nuclear deal and said that Israel persuaded France to stiffen conditions for the interim accord reached with Iran last year.

Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, Steinitz echoed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments earlier Tuesday to the annual conference of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that Iran must not only not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons but should not have the capacity to do so.

However, the Obama administration has drawn the line at nuclear weapons, not capability, recognizing that Iranian scientists cannot unlearn how to build centrifuges and that the Iranian leadership needs to be able to defend any deal domestically. The Nov. 24 joint plan of action — approved by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) — states that a comprehensive deal would include “a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the program.”

Steinitz called this a “miserable sentence,” adding, “You can find civilian justification for almost anything” and the number of centrifuges required for a civilian program of power generation was actually much greater than the 20,000 centrifuges installed in Iran, of which about 10,000 are operating.