“It was a very useful session.”
According to the Financial Times :
"The meeting came after Iran ignored an end of 2009 deadline set by US President Barack Obama for it to respond to an offer from the six powers of economic and political incentives in exchange for halting its nuclear enrichment program."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/27d3a52e-02df-11df-86b3-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
How strange! Only days earlier, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Philip J. Crowley asserted:
". . . what we have always said throughout the year was that at the end of the year we would assess where we are. But that’s not a deadline."
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2009/dec/133951.htm
Hey, Hillary, that's quite a comedy team you've got there in Burns and Crowley. ("Say goodnight, Philip.")
In other related news, Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Ahram stated in an op-ed on Saturday that the director of Israel's Mossad, Meir Dagan, is "Israel's superman" for successfully thwarting the Iranian nuclear program:
". . . without Dagan, the Iranian nuclear program would have been complete years ago. Nevertheless, the director of the Israeli Mossad, whose name is mostly unknown, works away from the limelight and the eyes of the media."
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=120117&language=en
Al-Ahram does not write anything without the approval of the president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, and herein lies further proof that Egypt fears Iran far more than Israel.
“It was a very useful session.”
ReplyDeleteThis group has less teeth than the League of Nations and persists in approaching the situation with pacifist "global community" thinking.Only when the opposition's thinking is met by similar thinking and action will the threat be diminished.Saying "Now,now,behave" to the school bully achieves nothing but further empowerment.
It's all just rituals. All players must be seen doing something to stop Iran but already know the inevitable outcome which is a nuclear Iran, maybe this year already. For Russia a nuclear Iran was the whole point to begin with when it supplied it with the ingredients and knowledge for a nuclear program, China desperately needs (sub market price)oil from Iran and will keep supporting it diplomatically, Europe is weak and undecided as usual and America is tied up in Iraq and Afganistan and a delusional policy of appeasement which fails to make it more popular with the radicals but certainly succeeds in loosing their respect.
ReplyDeleteAs a result allegiances in the region are already shifting. Saudi Arabia is looking at Iran as the new dominant power in the region. Egypt sees it's power waning and is looking in desperation at Israel. Israel has no doubt done a great job delaying Iran's nuclear program but in the end it won't change the outcome. A fascinating power game that will no doubt end in tragedy.
Chris, your scenario is certainly possible.
ReplyDeleteNote that Saudi Arabia and Egypt will never accept Iranian Shiite hegemony over the region and will be willing to do a deal with the "devil" (Israel) in order to prevent this from happening.
Also, although Obama has no backbone, I still have hope that France's Sarkozy might seek to confront Iran and that Germany's Merkel will be shamed into cooperating with him.
I wouldn't put my trust in Europe. Talk about leaning on a broken reed that will pierce your hand...French leaders tend to be terrified of their own muslim minorities and Germany has a lot to worry about in that department too and a lot else besides. For one thing Germany has become dependent on Russian natural gas which pretty much means Merkel needs to check her foreign agenda with Putin's and then there is all this lucrative trade going on between Germany and Iran...
ReplyDeleteIf Iran's walk to nuclear power is the result of an intricate power struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces of tyranny we have to accept that the latter have got the former in a stalemate position. Putin probably sees himself as a brilliant chessplayer at this point but he's not. Arming the ayatollahs of the apocalypse with nukes when you have to deal with disgruntled muslim minorities at home is not the work of a brilliant chessplayer. It's the work of a maniacal Russian roulette player with at least three bullets in his six-shooter.