As we all know, Iran made its formal response to the UN Security Council yesterday..no, they won't stop nuclear enrichment or their nuclear weapons development, but aside from that, they're open to serious talks!
What this `proposal' really was designed to do was to buy more time for Iran to complete its nuclear weapons cycle and to split the nations on the Security Council.
It's likely to succeed.
Iran made the decision on its response long before yesterday. Supremem leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was only the latest Iranian leader to say that giving up uranium enrichment was impossible. "The Islamic Republic of Iran with Allah's help will continue its research in the nuclear sphere," he said, going on to criticize the U.S. and other countries for pressuring Iran and promising not to turn from the path that will bring Iran "sweet fruit." Another indication of these intentions was Iran's refusal to allow UN inspectors into underground nuclear facility at Natanz, where new, high efficiency gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment have been installed.
Bolton and the Bush Administration, in conjunction with the French (!!) made a point of saying that the Iranian response was `inadequate' and that if a positive response was not forthcoming by the August 31st deadline, they would proceed with talks about sanctions.
President Bush should get a clue based on how the French, supposedly in line with the US on the requirements for a Lebanon ceasefire changed abruptly once French Foreign minister met his Iranian counterpart in Beirut and got France's orders from the Mullahs.
The Russians and Chinese once again reiterated that they would veto any sanctions against iran in the Security Council. The Russians have multibillion dollar arms contracts with Iran, including building all their nuclear facilities...and the Chinese want all that oil.
Don't count on the Europeans to fall in line either, for the same reasons..in addition to their restless Islamic populations.
The last time America tried to get Europe to go along with sanctions against Iran was back in the days of Euro-Friendly Jimmy Carter, after our embassy was overrun and our diplomats were takenhostage..and after numerous assurances of support, they essentialy melted away when hard action was called for.
And we also have the latest examples of the UN in action..the Oil For Food program with the sanctions against Saddam's Iraq and the Lebanese farce.
Bush is kidding himself if he thinks that this time will be any different.
Even in the unlikely event that the Europeans develop a spine and some kind of sanctions get voted in, they will be useless in preventing further aggression by Iran.
Aside from the fact that Russia and China won't honor them, the Mullahs know that sanctions will act as a smokescreen for their failing economy, galvanize the Iranians behind their leadership, will push oil prices to even higher limits, and will buy Iran more time to carry on with its enrichment work without fear of IAEA supervision.
America is in this alone, with perhaps only a very few allies.
The glove's been thrown in our faces. Will we blink, and put things off until later?
I guarantee you that the cost if we do so will be horrendous.
No comments:
Post a Comment