French President Nicolas Sarkosy convinced Bush crazy enough to attack Iran
- From: Jack Linthicum <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:28:15 -0700
Addressing the annual meeting of France's ambassadors to 188
countries, Mr. Sarkozy said either Iran lives up to its international
obligations and relinquishes its nuclear ambitions - or it will be
bombed into compliance. Mr. Sarkozy also made it clear he did not
agree with the Iranian-bomb-or-bombing-of-Iran position, which
reflects the pledge of Mr. Bush to his loyalists, endorsed by
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen.
Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Independent. But Mr. Sarkozy recognized
unless Iran's theocrats stop enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels
under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), we
will all be "faced with an alternative that I call catastrophic."
Article published Sep 3, 2007
The next war?
September 3, 2007
Arnaud de Borchgrave - BERN, Switzerland.
After a brief interruption of his New Hampshire vacation to meet
President Bush in the family compound at Kenebunkport, Maine, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy came away convinced his U.S. counterpart is
serious about bombing Iran's secret nuclear facilities. That's the
reading as it filtered back to Europe's foreign ministries:
Addressing the annual meeting of France's ambassadors to 188
countries, Mr. Sarkozy said either Iran lives up to its international
obligations and relinquishes its nuclear ambitions - or it will be
bombed into compliance. Mr. Sarkozy also made it clear he did not
agree with the Iranian-bomb-or-bombing-of-Iran position, which
reflects the pledge of Mr. Bush to his loyalists, endorsed by
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen.
Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Independent. But Mr. Sarkozy recognized
unless Iran's theocrats stop enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels
under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), we
will all be "faced with an alternative that I call catastrophic."
A ranking Swiss official privately said, "Anyone with a modicum of
experience in the Middle East knows that any bombing of Iran would
touch off at the very least regional instability and what could be an
unmitigated disaster for Western interests."
Leaks about the administration's plan to brand Iran's 125,000-strong
Revolutionary Guards a global terrorist organization is widely
interpreted as a major step on the escalator to military action.
Belatedly, Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, has signed
a contract with Lockheed Martin for the training of 35,000 elite
guards to be assigned to protect the kingdom's widely scattered oil
installations. With 25 percent of the world's oil reserves, Riyadh has
earmarked $5 billion to train and field as soon as possible a high-
tech force. Eighteen months ago, the desert kingdom was jolted by an
al Qaeda terrorist squad that managed to penetrate the first two
layers of defenses at Abqaiq, the nerve center of the entire oil
infrastructure.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now stated publicly his
country holds the key to the conditions of a U.S. withdrawal from
Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, much criticized by the
United States for his lack of leadership, and who has been deserted by
half his Cabinet, is much praised in Tehran, where he has gone twice
in 11 months to confer with Iranian leaders. Mr. Ahmadinejad also says
Iran is ready to fill the power vacuum in Iraq following a U.S.
withdrawal. "The political power of the occupiers is collapsing
rapidly," he said, "and soon we will see a huge power vacuum in the
region."
The United States is not alone in trying to prove Mr. Ahmadinejad's
geopolitical weather forecast wrong. Saudi Arabia and its five Gulf
Cooperation Council allies in the Gulf, Egypt and Jordan, are
terrified at the idea of Iraq falling under Iranian domination.
Hoping to head off a U.S.-Iran military confrontation, European
countries are still pinning their hopes on major Iranian concessions
at the International Atomic Energy Commission in Vienna. Iran is back
to cooperating with IAEA - but only one comma or semicolon at a time.
The three European Union countries acting as U.S. surrogates on
nuclear matters with Iran, and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, detect
progress where the U.S. sees only stalling. Iran is still resisting
short-notice inspections of sites that are not officially declared
nuclear facilities, and where secret nuclear work is believed to be
taking place.
Tehran's only objective at the IAEA and the U.N. Security Council is
to head off further economic sanctions from its major EU trading
partners. Thus the mantra that its only interest in nuclear matters is
as an alternative source of energy in a country already awash in oil
taxes credulity.
Both the Bush administration and Israel are painstakingly fashioning a
casus belli with Iran. For Israel, the training and weapons support
Iran furnishes Hezbollah in Lebanon (now with more rockets of all
kinds than it had before the 2006 war when it fired 4,000 into Israel)
and Hamas in Gaza (now equipped with Katyusha rockets and a range of
10.6 miles), coupled with Mr. Ahmadinejad's existential threats
against the Jewish state, are sufficient evidence to justify air
attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. And for the White House,
there is daily evidence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards meddling in
Iraq, from improved explosive devices made in Iran to behind-the-
scenes dominance in the affairs of the oil-rich south.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070903/COMMENTARY/109030018/1012&template=printart
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