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Editorials on Iran's nuclear program(Knight-Ridder / Tribune News Service Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Thursday, April 13: JUMPING THE GUN ON THE IRANIAN CRISIS If the Bush administration is merely updating contingency plans for dealing with aggression from Iran, then reports of an impending military showdown are vastly overblown. Given Iran's record as a state sponsor of terrorism and its admitted attempts to conceal its nuclear-power program, the administration is being prudent. If, however, the administration is seriously contemplating military action in the short term, it is jumping the gun. The international community has not exhausted diplomatic means to manage this brewing crisis, but letting time slip away only diminishes the possibility of a peaceful resolution. This doesn't mean that Iran should be treated with kid gloves. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran is unlikely to be deterred unless it is obliged to pay a price for defying the international rules governing the development of nuclear power, in particular the enrichment of uranium. That calls for vigorous enforcement by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog on issues of nuclear power. The IAEA has already blown the whistle on Iran's violation of the rules by running a secret program to acquire nuclear power. By April 28, Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the IAEA, must report to the Security Council on whether Iran has taken steps to shut down uranium-enrichment facilities as required. But now that Iran has boasted of its success in actual enrichment, thumbing its nose at the IAEA and the rest of the world, ElBaradei has no option except to call for shutting the process down at once. President Bush is right not to take military action off the table, but the United States is hardly in a position to undertake military action against Iran at this time, and Ahmadinejad knows it. The most important message Iran can get at the moment is that the world community is united in opposing its nuclear efforts. Two countries can be particularly helpful in getting that message across. Russia has been useful by offering to enrich uranium at a Russian facility for Iran, thus taking the process out of the hands of the mullahs in Tehran. Iran, however, has rejected the offer. Having been spurned, the only choice for Russia is to show solidarity with the rest of Europe by demanding that Iran close down its nuclear facilities or face U.N. sanctions. China, another key ally of Iran, also has an obligation to help extinguish this lit fuse. China would like to remain a friend to Iran but also be deemed a force for world progress and stability. China, more than any other country, can make it clear to Iran that its actions stand in defiance of the international community and that China's patience, along with that of everyone else, is running out. ___ The following editorial appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday, April 13: INCREASE THE PRESSURE Tuesday's declaration from Iran's president that his country is enriching uranium is a thumb in the eye of the international community. It should steel the United Nations' resolve to shut down Iran's nuclear program. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration came just two weeks after the United Nations Security Council unanimously resolved to give Iran until April 28 to suspend enrichment, a step in producing nuclear fuel for power or for weapons. Analysts said Iran's timing was meant to convince the Security Council that it is too late to stop the country's nuclear program. But a nuclear-armed Iran is too big a risk for the world to accept. Iran is an aggressive promoter of radical Islam and sponsor of terrorism. With a nuclear arsenal, Iran could dominate the energy-rich Persian Gulf and threaten any other country within missile range. Reports that U.S. defense officials have been drawing up plans for strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities are not surprising. It's one of the Pentagon's responsibilities to be prepared for contingencies. But military force needs to remain a last resort. There is still time for diplomacy. Most analysts believe Iran, even after its declaration, is several years away from producing nuclear weapons. There are steps the Security Council can take short of broad economic sanctions to raise the pressure on Iran, including an international arms embargo, a freeze on its leaders' financial assets and a suspension of its U.N. membership. Now is the time for the United States to begin building support for such steps. ___ The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, April 12: IRAN IN THE CROSS HAIRS You might expect that a country facing the U.N. Security Council would cool the military bluster just a bit. Not Iran. It just keeps bullying along, daring the world to impede its accelerating progress toward building a nuclear weapon. In the last couple of weeks, Tehran has test-fired three missiles, including one that could carry multiple warheads and evade radar systems. "The world should not worry because any country has its own self-defense conventional military activities," said an Iranian official. The world isn't worried about Iran's conventional capabilities. It's worried, with good reason, that Iran will build nukes. The saber-rattling isn't limited to Iran. The Washington Post reports that the Bush administration "is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran." That includes the possibility of using tactical nuclear devices against buried targets, the Post reported. In The New Yorker, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh writes that the U.S. "has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack." In Hersh's telling, "Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups." It's difficult to decipher how much of this is real and how much is strategic bluster. On Monday, President Bush labeled these reports "wild speculation." But it's fair to say that Iran is now in the cross hairs, diplomatically and militarily. In the latest national security strategy report, the administration says, "We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran." Of the current efforts to influence Iran, the paper says: "This diplomatic effort must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided." That's blunt and chilling language. There are some who believe that a nuclear Iran is inevitable. But that group doesn't seem to include the Bush administration or Israel, both of which have apparently been planning for military action against nuclear sites in Iran. That is prudent. Iran, a major sponsor of terrorism around the globe, cannot be allowed to wield nukes. An attack would be a last resort and is fraught with huge risks. The targets are scattered, and many are deep underground. Iran likely would retaliate by roiling world oil markets and making more trouble in Iraq. The best way to solve this crisis still is through muscular diplomacy. So far, however, the Security Council is getting sand kicked in its face. A couple of weeks ago, in its first move against Iran, the council warned Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activities and to cooperate with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency. Unfortunately, the initial statement, more of a throat-clearing, didn't include a hint of more serious consequences that could follow if Iran stonewalled the Security Council. So the council tossed the case like a radioactive potato back to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which had achieved nothing in years of wheedling, urging and cajoling Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The council requested a report from the IAEA in 30 days on Iran's compliance. Compliance? We'll spare you the suspense. Iran responded almost immediately with the expected message: Forget it. On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his nation has successfully enriched uranium for the first time. ``I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries,'' he told a cheering audience. That's a pointed message to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is scheduled to visit Tehran this week to push the Iranians to freeze enrichment. The diplomatic timetable is not infinite. Experts differ on how long it will take before Iran can build a bomb. According to American intelligence estimates, Iran won't have a nuclear weapon until the early or middle years of the next decade. The Israelis reportedly believe the Iranians could have the capability of building one as early as 2008. It's clear that the council cannot agree _ yet _ on how to stop Iran. With China and Russia opposing sanctions, Tehran figures, correctly, it's got little to worry about in the near term. So what now? First, Bush and European leaders need to push hard on Russian President Vladimir Putin to wholeheartedly join the effort. Maybe he needs to be reminded of his country's embarrassment after recent efforts to negotiate a deal collapsed in the face of Iranian intransigence? Or that the Cold War is over and he's supposedly on the side of those who don't want Iran to get nukes? Even if Russia and China don't go along, the U.S. could form an effective coalition outside the Security Council with European and Asian allies. Sanctions could slow the regime's race for the bomb. Tehran would not welcome cuts of Western investment in developing the country's oil and gas industry, or of the billions in other trade that comes from the EU. Sanctions aren't perfect. They can take a long time to work, if they work at all. Innocent people can get hurt. But they're preferable to round after endless round of empty U.N. negotiation. That only increases the chance that soon Iran will end up solely in the military cross hairs. ___ (c) 2006, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Not for publication or retransmission without permission of KRT. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected]. |