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Thursday, March 11, 2004
Caving In to the Mullahs
March 11, 2004
The Wall Street Journal
Review & Outlook
With new evidence of Iran's nuclear deceptions emerging almost daily, it is troubling that Europe seemed to have coaxed the U.S. into yet another wrist-slapping exercise. At the board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna Tuesday, Washington gave in to European demands and agreed in a draft resolution to tone down criticism of Iran's clandestine nuclear program and even praise Teheran's "cooperation" with the IAEA.
Yet there is no longer any doubt that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Hassan Rohani, of the Supreme Council for National Security, practically admitted as much: "We want Iran to be recognized as a member of the nuclear club, that means Iran be recognized as a country having the nuclear fuel cycle, and enriching uranium."
The issue is how to deal with the problem. As always, Europe is more interested in process than results and wants to keep the dialogue alive. Many Europeans like to distance themselves from gung-ho Americans, advocating instead traditional diplomacy, preferably of the multilateral kind. Multilateral is eurospeak for any initiative that enjoys French and German approval.
That's why they were so quick to congratulate each other last October, when the British, French and German foreign ministers appeared to have struck a deal with Teheran. In return for European technical assistance, Iran pledged to come clean on its nuclear program.
But recently, IAEA inspectors found designs for hitherto undeclared advanced uranium enrichment facilities and polonium, a radioactive element for triggering nuclear weapons. So it seems diplomacy isn't working so well after all. British Prime Minister Tony Blair remarked himself in his recent defense of the Iraq war: "When they talk, as they do now, of diplomacy coming back into fashion in respect of Iran or North Korea or Libya, do they seriously think that diplomacy alone has brought about this change?" In other words, the few, albeit questionable results the trip to Teheran produced, such as Iran's promise to allow intrusive inspections, weren't really the fruits of French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin's labor but rather "collateral benefit" from disposing of the butcher from Baghdad.
But even with thousands of U.S. troops breathing down the mullahs' necks, Iran seems determined to soft-pedal the negotiations and to draw them out. Europe's diplomacy, ostensibly designed to bring about a peaceful solution, is so inadequate that it may actually create a situation where nothing short of military intervention will stop the Iranians from acquiring the ultimate weapon.
To quote Mr. Blair again: "This is not a time for the cynicism of the worldly wise who favor playing it long." Unfortunately, when it comes to Iran, Mr. Blair too favors playing it long, even though Iran may only be a year or two from having the bomb. So time is certainly on Teheran's side.
What should concentrate the minds of the diplomats is that Iran already possesses the delivery capability to hit Israel, European targets and soon also the U.S. Iran is working on putting satellites into orbit, which would give it the technology to launch intercontinental missiles. Not to speak of the possibility of Iran passing on nuclear material to terrorists for a "dirty bomb" that could go off anywhere in the world.
If diplomacy is to have any chance, the Western world needs to up the ante. All the Europeans are telling the Iranians at the moment is that if they don't play ball the EU won't sign an extended trade agreement. But Teheran knows that with its current human rights record and last month's sham elections, even the EU couldn't justify extending economic ties.
Europe must be willing to drag Iran before the U.N. Security Council. It must threaten economic sanctions and go through with them if necessary. Given that Europe is Iran's biggest trading partner, this would seriously hurt the mullahs. Iran clearly wants to muscle its way into the select fraternity of nuclear-armed nations. But if the weak-kneed "diplomacy" of the West allows that to happen, we may as well write off non-proliferation policy and let everyone who wants to extract nuclear blackmail in the door.
link to original article
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