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Taking the Soft Approach Towards Iran?

[Times-UK] Oliver Kamm - The Iranians mounted a similar attack in 2004, when six Royal Marines and two sailors were abducted from the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Iran's repeated kidnapping of British servicemen is piracy. The men (and one woman) seized are part of a force operating under a UN Security Council resolution. How we and our allies deal with a recalcitrant, untrustworthy and erratic state has important repercussions for the security of the region. Like Charlie Brown expecting Lucy not to pull the football away this time, the Western democracies assume Iran will join the community of nations if only we are sufficiently accommodating. But accommodation is already extensive. It includes accepting Iran's right to develop peaceful nuclear technology without necessarily pressing for a cessation of work on the nuclear fuel cycle. The U.S. has also accepted a compromise proposal from Russia for some uranium enrichment activity to be moved from Iran to Russia. Yet Iran's response is obdurate, and its behavior patently aggressive. Fifteen British sailors and Marines are only the latest victims of this provocative and threatening regime.
2007-03-27 01:00:00
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