[Times-UK] Editorial - Iran's official reaction to the modest but unanimous UN Security Council resolution is a defiant pledge to "accelerate" the nuclear program that has exposed it to UN sanctions. But that does not make the resolution unimportant. Ten months after being referred to the Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is finally on the council's formal watchlist. That guarantees one thing: Iran's nuclear ambitions will be the focus of concentrated international attention throughout 2007, at last given a prominence commensurate with the dangers they present. Iran has proved itself an energetic troublemaker, not only in Iraq but in Lebanon. Defiance will be costlier now. It is evident that the regime is even more dependent on oil revenues than the world is on Iranian oil - and Iran's oil industry, starved of foreign technology, is in trouble.
2006-12-29 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive