Iran has taken the next step in its game of nuclear brinksmanship.
Iran yesterday precipitated a fresh crisis over its nuclear programme by removing UN seals at a facility in the town of Natanz and announcing that it would begin research involving nuclear enrichment – which can produce weapons grade material.
To counter, Russia has announced that it is “very disappointed” and “expressed deep concern” on the development. Great Britain, France and Germany, the Euro powers that have been in negotiation with Iran in hopes of halting the radical nation’s nuclear ambitions, announced that they “may meet on Thursday to discuss” the issue. The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency bravely rushed forth with a “predictably lame response” (for once not my phrasing for anything the agency has managed for years and years). Apparently, there was even a “global outcry” today, though I seemed to have missed it.
With a tad bit more effort, the civilized world could have come across looking even more limp-wristed and weak … maybe.
It is time, actually well past time, to admit that the Euro diplomacy path was a gambit doomed to fail. The U.S. was forced to allow it, as the Bush administration had been painted into a corner with all the false and politically-driven accusations of unilateral action and rush to war surrounding the Iraqi theater. From the beginning, there was a key fault with the negotiations — one side didn’t actually want them to succeed.
Negotiation in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.
—Dean Acheson
The Euro-Iranian talks have been along the lines of the negotiations preceeding the Munich Agreement, as one side sought “peace in our time” while the other merely sought to buy time.
The danger to the survival of Israel is evident, especially given the fanaticism of the current Iranian president and his backing hard-line religious leaders. What may be less evident but no less true is the danger the West would face by a nuke-capable and quite radical Iran stepping forth as leaders of the Islamist world.
Unless science suddenly helps the European powers regrow a spine, the time has come for the only nations actually willing and capable of facing the threat to step up to the plate. I’m speaking specifically about the U.S. and Israel. Bloody action by one of the two may quickly be needed, though such wouldn’t be easy. Unfortunately, current global politics would prevent an overtly-combined action by the two. As the Islamist threat matures and becomes more evident, at least to those not completely and pathetically blinded, that sad political reality may change or become a less-pressing consideration when compared to the survival of our civilization.
Comments
2 responses to “Crisis as Iran Reopens Nuclear Research Plant”
Having been born just a few years after the development of the A-bomb, I and those of my generation have had a wonderful time living in juxtaposition to nuclear Armageddon. During the Cold War a good time was had by all. Maybe I just pay more attention now, but it seems to me the threat an Iran armed with nuclear weapons would pose exceeds any threat we’ve seen since the development of such weapons, and maybe by a lot.
We just deployed a wing of F-1s to an undisclosed place in South West Asia. It’s only a dozen or so planes, but it’s interesting that it was done when we’re supposedly winding down operations in Iraq.