Bush demands action as Iran snubs UN
It seems to have been going on forever. Iran and Washington staring at each other across the abyss waiting for either side to blink.
Now the moment has arrived.. and still neither side has blinked.
Mohamed El Baradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, has reported to the council that Iran has not only failed to suspend it's nuclear enrichment programme, but as of 24 August it has started a new round of enrichment.
The Bush camp have lost no time in moving to call for sanctions.
Ahmadinejad has lost no time in warning that, should sanctions be imposed, retaliatory action will be taken by Iran, though the exact nature of this retaliatory action remains unspecified.
Ahmandinejad was equally unrepentant:Mr Bush, underlining Washington's increasing impatience, said Tehran had reacted with defiance and delaying tactics in response to the UN deadline. "It is time for Iran to make a choice," he told a convention of US veterans. "We've made our choice. We will continue to work closely with our allies to find a diplomatic solution, but there must be consequences for Iran's defiance and we must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon."
John Bolton, Washington's hawkish ambassador to the UN, said it was time for the security council to draw up sanctions against Tehran. The IAEA report showed "ample evidence" of Iran's defiance and obstructionism, he said, along with activities that would be "simply inexplicable if their real purpose [were] a peaceful nuclear power programme".
President Ahmadinejad, in a speech at Orumiyeh, said: "The Iranian nation will not succumb to bullying, invasion and the violation of its rights." He said enemies of the country were trying to stir up differences among the Iranian people, but "I tell them 'you are wrong. The Iranian nation is united'."The Bush regime have still to prove that there is any malign intent on the part of the Iranians, who continue to insist that peaceful development of nuclear energy is their right under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
I've long thought that Bush is heading for a brick wall with this one as the UN are not, in my opinion, prepared to offer the kind of sanctions that Bush wants. He may achieve some limited success with travel bans etc., but the sanctions he manages to obtain are hardly likely to be punitive.
The best course of action for Bush remains the one that he is least likely to take. Iran are offering talks, they are simply refusing to accept the suspension of uranium as a precondition for those talks taking place.
However, it is clear to most of us that Bush is seeking confrontation with Iran. However, the longer this stand off has continued, the one thing that has not changed is the fact that Ahmadinjad continues to hold all the cards.
Indeed, his position has only been strengthened by Bush's actions - I'm thinking specifically about Bush's support for the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, which resulted in an unforeseen and massive victory for Hizbullah and Iran.
I remain convinced that any US action against Iran would be an act of suicide, however, as recent events have shown - Bush encouraging Israel to expand their war to Syria - this is not a White House that deals in pragmatics.
Nevertheless, I still feel sure that the end of all this will be Bush encouraging other countries to impose sanctions on Iran outside the framework of the UN, as the UN are almost assured to refuse to give him what he wants.
However, victory for Bush will only happen if Iran agree to suspend it's nuclear enrichment programme, and that now looks further away than ever.
Perhaps rather than all his braying and chest beating, it would have been better for Bush to engage in talks so that the exact nature of Iran's nuclear programme could have been established.
Sometimes the posturing is so severe that we forget what the objective is supposed to be. One thing is clear, his policy of non-engagement with the Iranian regime has not borne fruit. Ahmadinejad has not blinked.
And, it appears, there is very little Bush can do about that.
It is, once again, a massive failure in foreign policy brought about by the neo-con insistence of stating their world view and demanding that all others comply. Iran has refused. So Bush will once again beat his head on the UN brick wall.
It's an unedifying spectacle. Negotiations would have been more statesmanlike and more profitable.
What a pity he chose not to engage in them.
Click title for full article.
No comments:
Post a Comment