[Washington Post] Editorial - The assassination of Lebanese Christian leader Pierre Gemayel fits snugly into a pattern of provocations across the region by Iran and Syria, which appear to believe that American reversals in Iraq have given them the opportunity to create what Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad calls "a new Middle East" - one in which their influence and radical ideology will predominate. They would make their client Hizballah the power broker in Lebanon, restoring Syrian suzerainty. They would use Hamas to block any progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian settlement and perpetuate a continuing, if low-grade, war on Israel. And they would continue to bleed the U.S. by supplying insurgents in Iraq with arms and sanctuary. Iran meanwhile presses ahead with its barely disguised nuclear weapons program. In response to this bold bid for regional hegemony, the U.S. has apparently resolved...to intensively negotiate with itself and its chief European allies about how it might "engage" Ahmadinejad and Assad. While the debate goes on, the Western effort to sanction Iran for its nuclear program is stalled and all but forgotten. No punitive action against Syria is even being discussed. No attempt to reason with Assad and the Iranian mullahs will succeed unless they perceive that the U.S. and its allies wield sticks as well as carrots. As long as the Bush administration is unable to win UN Security Council approval for sanctions against Iran - or impose them through an ad hoc coalition - Tehran will have no incentive to make concessions. Assad will demand that the West concede him Lebanon and call off the murder investigations that would likely implicate him - unless he worries that his failure to cooperate will result in fresh international sanctions against Syria. Iran and Syria are ruthlessly waging war against Western interests in the Middle East. Offering to talk is only a small part of what it will take to stop them.
2006-11-28 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive