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Ignoring Iran's Nuclear Plan Would Be the West's Greatest Blunder

[Telegraph-UK] Con Coughlin - The West has given up on its attempts to prevent Iran acquiring an atom bomb - and the result will be a nuclear arms race that threatens not only the future of the Middle East, but the entire world. This is the apocalyptic view that now appears to be taking root among some of the world's leading Iran experts, as we approach the point when Tehran's newly re-elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, decides whether he is prepared to enter into a constructive dialogue over his country's illicit pursuit of nuclear technology. To judge by the mood of the delegates participating in a conference on Iran this week in Italy, organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the omens do not look good. The overwhelming consensus was that the chances of Ahmadinejad's responding positively to Obama's appeal to Tehran to "unclench its fist" are remote indeed. A mood of defeatism appears to have settled over the White House, while a similar air of resignation has taken hold in Europe. Only Britain and France have any appetite for further tough talking. With political will diminishing in the West, the most likely outcome is that leading Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt, seek to acquire their own nuclear arsenals. The Saudis helped to finance Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, while the Syrians and Egyptians are known to have their own advanced research projects. A poly-nuclear Middle East would pose the greatest threat to world peace seen since the creation of the Iron Curtain. But the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, which could be relied upon during the Cold War to prevent a nuclear holocaust, cannot be applied to a region in which national pride and personal honor often take precedence over the more basic human instinct for self-preservation.
2009-08-14 06:00:00
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