Okay, Iran, This Is Really Your Fourth Last Chance!
"French President Jacques Chirac has said referring Iran to the UN Security Council is not the best way to resolve a crisis over its nuclear programme. "I don't believe in a solution without dialogue," Mr Chirac told Europe-1 radio, urging countries to remove the threat of sanctions against Iran."You can read the full article from the BBC here.
How am I not surprised, are you? Iran supplies a huge portion of France's oil and France has supplied technology and supplies to support Iran's search for nuclear power. The members of the security council can not even abide by the resolution that has been passed by the United Nations themselves!
What is even more troubling is that if you are not aware of the incentives already offered by the UN, you should be. You should read what incentives were offered to Iran previously. They were a comprehensive and very sweet deal. They focused on a huge financial aid, western technology transfer, help in setting up nuclear power plants, and introduction into the World Trade Organization. In fact the deal was so sweet that to refuse it meant that Iran really wanted not nuclear power to improve the life of its people, but nuclear weapons. I have read the text of the incentives, as they were posted on the Web shortly after release and then quickly pulled as the United Nations considers them confidential in nature.
What message does all this send to Iran?
1. I think that the message is that if we [Iran] hold out, the UN will fight against itself into oblivion and then we don't have to do anything. Waffles with your "Kofi" anyone?
2. If we [Iran] hold out, we can blackmail the western powers to "really pay us".
3. If we [Iran] hold out, we can gain more political power worldwide and the United Nations and nations in the Middle East will see that we are powerful against the West and a factor to be concerned with.
I do believe in the sovereign rights of countries to chart their own course, but I also believe that there are rules of decent society and to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons is in the interest of every world citizen. Iran has chosen to play outside the typical cadre of world diplomatic relations. Through our own ineptitude, Iran is however coming to understand that the nuclear power and enrichment is one of its biggest bargaining chips on the world stage. Iran will not easily give this big of a chip up easily.
