Iran
’s Nuclear Ambitions
Act on
Iran
. Now!
Intellectualconservatives.com
by Hedayat Mostowfi
Mohammed Khatami,
the so-called reformist and pro-Western Iranian president, announced last
week that the Islamic Republic will continue enriching uranium in defiance
of a resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
that demanded
Iran
stop all nuclear-related activity.
Once again, the international community has
failed to convince mullahs to curb their nuclear procurement through
dialogue. Meanwhile
Iran
has gained valuable time to continue its efforts to obtain the A-bomb.
This must be a big blow for the policy makers who are in the favor of a
“Grand Bargain” strategy and who have been aimlessly prescribing
engagement and dialogue with the tyranny in
Iran
for more than twenty-five years. In fact, those European countries and
those in the
United States
who endorse the appeasement policy are partially responsible for the
catastrophic outcomes of giving the mullahs of
Iran
time to work toward the realization of their dangerous ambitions.
Iran
has been the major sponsor of global terrorism for a quarter century. From
sponsoring terrorist groups in the Middle East to bombings of Khobar
and
Buenos Aires
and fueling the insurgency in
Iraq
, it is not difficult to imagine how
Iran
would use or distribute its nuclear weapons.
It is a mystery that while countries with much
lower risks to world stability have been confronted, the mullahs in
Iran
have been spared.
The Iranian leaders have used a variety of
tactics to circumvent decisive international action. They use the
insurgency in
Iraq
to weaken the coalition forces and to divert attention from their plans.
They offer lucrative trade contracts to their European partners in return
for political concessions. They use everything in their power to silence
dissent at home and abroad. Inside
Iran
, they use executions, inhumane punishments and severe abuse of human
rights. Abroad, they have so far assassinated 450 exiles.
After the European Union began engaging Iran under
the cloak of ”critical dialogue,” the mullahs demanded the
blacklisting of Iran’s main opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen
of Iran (MEK), effectively restricting the activities of their opponents
outside the country. Ironically, the MEK and its affiliated organizations
were the key source of information that shed bright lights on
Iran
’s clandestine nuclear weapons program two years ago.
Today’s chaos in Iraq and elsewhere in the
Middle East could be explained in the context of a policy of mollifying
the mullahs in Tehran, who have realized that either for pure economic
reasons or political considerations, the West is willing to turn a blind
eye on their excesses at home and sponsorship of terror abroad.
The world has always limited itself to two
options when considering what to do about the Iranian danger: appeasement
or military action. Both are misguided. The former has proven futile in
the past decade and the latter ignores the role the Iranian people and the
organized opposition could play in bringing about regime change in that
country.
The fact is that
Iran
is perhaps the only country in the world today where the overwhelming
majority of its citizens (ninety-four percent according to a government
poll two years ago) oppose the clerics. This explains why tens of
thousands of Iranians have been imprisoned, tortured or executed by the
current government.
Unfortunately, Europe’s policy of all
carrot and no stick has impeded efforts by Iranians and dissident forces
to unseat the regime in
Tehran
. If the West is seriously concerned about
Iran
’s mischief in
Iraq
, nuclear intransigence, and sponsorship of terror, it has no choice but
to reach out to Iranian opposition groups who are seeking to replace the
current regime with the secular, democratic government.
As a first step, Europe and the
U.S.
should remove the MEK from their list of terrorist Organizations. The
group’s designation several years ago was politically motivated and
designed to placate the Iranian theocracy. Parallel to working with
Iranian dissident groups, the West must refer
Iran
’s nuclear dossier to the United Nations Security Council for the
adoption of sanctions in order to thwart its nuclear ambitions.
These initiatives would weaken the Iranian
regime from inside and outside and give the Iranian people the hope and
power to topple the mullahs. The world would be a better and safer place
without the turbaned tyrants in
Iran
. The clock is ticking for
Iran
and our indecisiveness is the key to achieve nuclear weapons. Act firmly
on
Iran
, now!
Hedayat
Mostowfi is the Executive Director for
nationwide Committee
in Support of Referendum in Iran.
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