Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
If our working assumption is that Iran has the capability to manufacture nuclear weapons, then our anxiety should be double; it is becoming increasingly obvious that the "international community" is a hollow concept when it comes to organizing a protective belt against international threats like the military nuclearization of a particular state… even if the United Nations finds a sufficiently tortuous formula for the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran, there is no plan in place for the day after the sanctions, when Iran, besieged as it is, nevertheless puts its nuclear arsenal on display for all to see. …
Within two to three years that same community will be needing a new kind of diplomacy vis-a-vis Iran - the kind that the U.S. is using with North Korea, a diplomacy whose goal is to dismantle existing weapons and eliminate the motivation to use them. This would be a policy that is the opposite of sanctions. A policy that would give Iran the international status it desires, and for which purpose it is, among other things, developing nuclear capabilities. A policy that would include Arab states and Israel, in place of the kind that is perceived as a Western diktat to the Arab and Muslim world. In essence, that is the same policy that should be employed now, especially at a time when important voices in Iran are showing a willingness to conduct serious negotiations. Access the full article>>