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Iran Deal Validates Nuclear Blackmail
(Christian Science Monitor) Ephraim Sneh - In May 2003 I attended a closed international conference on Middle East security after the fall of Saddam Hussein. To the participants' surprise, a special guest joined the meeting: Muhssein Rizai, the former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, and an influential insider of the regime in Tehran. Rizai sent a clear message to the U.S. administration: If you, the Americans, want to stabilize the Middle East, talk to the hegemonic power - us, the Iranians. He effectively offered to partition the Middle East into two zones of influence: Iranian and American. The U.S. rejected his offer. Until now. With the deal in Geneva last month, the Iranian regime stands on the verge of getting exactly what it wants, thanks to nuclear blackmail. The P5+1 seems ready to give to the ayatollah's regime not only a comprehensive insurance policy for its survival, but also a license for its imperial ambitions and a permit to use the blackmail leverages of missiles and terror to undermine governments in the Persian Gulf and Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian territories. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's harsh criticism of the Geneva deal is correct. The eagerness of the P5+1 to strike a deal with the ayatollah's regime seems to stem not only from an aversion to standing up against evil, but also from a lack of understanding of the Islamist challenge and from a blurred distinction between allies and foes in the region. Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Ephraim Sneh, a Labor Knesset member (1992-2008), twice served as Israel's deputy minister of defense and is chair of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue at Netanya Academic College.