Monday, March 06, 2006

Iran In Place To Get Away From The World

I've pretty much avoided commenting on the whole Iran nuke issue because there wasn't enough of a critical mass of data to make any value judgements. Until today:
NUCLEAR: UN WATCHDOG TO DECIDE IRAN'S FATE

Vienna, 6 March (AKI) - (Ahmad Rafat) - The board of governors of the UN atomic watchdog will decide in Vienna on Monday whether to refer Iran's nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council or just inform it of the country's violations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The decision ends years of intense diplomatic activity which have led to no concrete result. The Islamic Republic has insisted on its right to pursue nuclear activities and claims its programme is purely for civilian use. However, in the past few days, Iran has been more open to dialogue to delay a referral to the Security Council.

Sanctions potentially imposed by the Security Council on Iran would have an impact on the energy market and would be disastrous for Iran's fragile economy.
(emphasis added)

Doesn't all this smack of Saddam Hussein and a policy of containment? The distinction to make here is a) the neo-cons are in office now, as opposed to fifteen years ago when that policy was affirmed by two consecutive presidents, and b) there's blood in the water in enacting the PNAC avowed goal of transforming the Middle East to "democracy".

You'll note that throughout the debacles over Iraq and the recent Dubai controversies, the one organizational roster that has remained completely in agreement with Bush's fumbles and flops has been the PNAC roster.

This "decision" today by the el Baradei led IAEA board of governors could have been strongly influenced by the current US administration's war time footing (and horrendously clumsy bullying), as evidenced by the comments of John Bolton yesterday in front of the AIPAC.

Yea. There's a backdrop to talk reconciliation and negotiated settlement of a Muslim crisis: the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee...

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