By Marwan Bishara
Al-Jazeera
".....But states are in the business of hiding their intentions, especially concerning national security and sovereignty. If they were forthcoming and transparent, intelligence services would not exist.
Actually, Tehran is managing a sensitive, even dangerous balancing act. It reveals the minimum required by its international obligations while making bombastic statements about its breakthroughs in nuclear enrichment.
As it tries to please the IAEA as an accountable member of the international community, it annoys, even embarrasses, the US and its European partners to please its nationalistic popular base.....
Back to the future
Instead, Washington has pursued three possible alternatives: Charm/conciliation, coercion/sanctions and regime change/war.
Since the charm offensive failed to slow down Iran's uranium enrichment, let alone stop it or tone down the bombastic rhetoric, the Obama administration is moving towards the second option: Sanctions and isolation.
Its first signs were revealed on the eve of Obama's visit to China last November. He reportedly dispatched special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to explain to the Chinese the logic behind US pressure on Iran and the danger of the alternative scenarios, such as an Israeli military operation against the Iranian nuclear programme.
Since then attempts at imposing new sanctions have grown more urgent......
I expect Obama, who vowed to deny Iran nuclear weapons at any cost, to focus US efforts on sanctions and coercion in order to diminish Tehran's leverage as it bargains over its nuclear programme.
As for the war option, it will remain on the table to intimidate Iran and to tame the reservations and outright objections from friend and foe alike."
Al-Jazeera
".....But states are in the business of hiding their intentions, especially concerning national security and sovereignty. If they were forthcoming and transparent, intelligence services would not exist.
Actually, Tehran is managing a sensitive, even dangerous balancing act. It reveals the minimum required by its international obligations while making bombastic statements about its breakthroughs in nuclear enrichment.
As it tries to please the IAEA as an accountable member of the international community, it annoys, even embarrasses, the US and its European partners to please its nationalistic popular base.....
Back to the future
Instead, Washington has pursued three possible alternatives: Charm/conciliation, coercion/sanctions and regime change/war.
Since the charm offensive failed to slow down Iran's uranium enrichment, let alone stop it or tone down the bombastic rhetoric, the Obama administration is moving towards the second option: Sanctions and isolation.
Its first signs were revealed on the eve of Obama's visit to China last November. He reportedly dispatched special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to explain to the Chinese the logic behind US pressure on Iran and the danger of the alternative scenarios, such as an Israeli military operation against the Iranian nuclear programme.
Since then attempts at imposing new sanctions have grown more urgent......
I expect Obama, who vowed to deny Iran nuclear weapons at any cost, to focus US efforts on sanctions and coercion in order to diminish Tehran's leverage as it bargains over its nuclear programme.
As for the war option, it will remain on the table to intimidate Iran and to tame the reservations and outright objections from friend and foe alike."
No comments:
Post a Comment