Events
Emanuele Ottolenghi to Speak on the Iranian Nuclear Crisis
On the Edge of a Nuclear Crisis
Australian Institute of International Affairs
Melbourne, Australia
With every passing month of bluff and bluster, Iran is edging closer to developing a nuclear arsenal that would change forever the strategic equation in the greater Middle East and trigger a new arms race across the region.
The imposition of further financial and energy sanctions on the regime by the West will take months to come into effect, with little apparent likelihood that they will induce a suspension of the nuclear programme - despite Iran's critical dependence on being able to export oil.
Israel is openly debating whether to attack Iran's nuclear installations before they can produce weapons that would add weight to the regime's threats to wipe the Jewish state off the map. The stakes are huge, as is the capacity for mistakes or miscalculations to take place in or beyond the Persian Gulf where the United States maintains a naval fleet.
To explore and explain what this evolving crisis means, we are pleased to welcome the return to AIIAV of Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies and the author of 'The Pasdaran: Inside Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps', 'The Looming Crisis' and 'Under a Mushroom Cloud: Europe, Iran and the Bomb'.
Dr Ottolenghi has testified before the Canadian and European parliaments on issues related to Iran. He is a frequent commentator on Middle Eastern affairs. His Ph.D is from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
AIIAV thanks the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council for arranging Dr Ottolenghi's appearance.