What a dreadful pickle the whole Iran saga has become. Iran´s desire for nuclear power seems perfectly reasonable, and positive Western engagement on the issue should really have been welcomed – but then sabres were rattled and stupid talk of an “Axis of Evil” painted Iran as one of the three troublesome rogues that Bush planned to deal with – jingoistic drivel of “one down, two to go” following the “defeat” of Iraq hardly helped in building bridges. Little wonder Iran turned to the more extreme candidate when the elections came round, Americans can hardly throw stones at other countries for voting in right-wing religious fundamentalists.
In a preview of his State of the Union, Bush said to Iran: “if you want to be a part of the family of nations, give up your nuclear weapons ambitions.” So here we are again, a middle-eastern country trying to develop WMD? Where have I heard that before? Crying wolf can be dangerous for your credibility, and in this case has effectively blunted the US position. Even if there is a wolf this time (and I doubt it), the case will be next to impossible to make.
Teddy Roosevelt said of diplomacy, “talk softly and carry a big stick“, the Bush White House is transfixed by the stick and seems to have forgotten the clever bit. The mark of good diplomacy is how rarely the stick is threatened, not how often. Now Iran are going to take their ball home if the issue is sent to the UN – so stalemate and consequently confrontation are suddenly looking probable, and with the US military at breaking point and Iraq breeding terrorists like there´s no tomorrow, this spells untold disaster.
The answer is simple, though it´s implementation far less so. Iran needs to be welcomed into the “family of nations” and engaged positively, they cannot be expected to lose face and accept some kind of humbling prerequisites because that will make such engagement impossible. I don´t want Iran to have the bomb, but accept that they have a right to have nuclear power, the latter doesn´t necessarily mean the former.
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