October 16, 2013 | Quote
Iran Stalls, Centrifuges Spin
First the Iranian foreign ministry learned how to tweet; now we are told their negotiators are using PowerPoint. Can peace in our time be far off?
That’s the mindset of many eager in the media to help the administration paint a picture of progress at the nuclear arms talks just concluded in Geneva, Switzerland. In fact, in the words of an official of a pro-Israel organization, “Nothing — nothing has changed.” Iran is still enriching, the centrifuges are spinning and Iran is still insisting it has a “right” to enrich and has no nuclear arms program. As the official put it, “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this rodeo.” The regime has spent all of Obama’s first term and some of George W. Bush’s talking, but not deviating one iota from its nuclear weapons plans.
The mullahs have “offered” a freeze on current enrichment for a period of time and a reduction in its existing stockpile in exchange for lifting all sanctions. This is preposterous in as much as it leaves Iran with a short “breakout” capacity of a few months or less and relief from sanctions. Critics of U.S. policy were emphatic about the need for Congress to act. Cliff May of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told me, “Congress and the administration should move ahead immediately to ratchet up the sanctions pressure. Doing so may push Iran dangerously close to the economic edge. And that, in turn, might make clear to Iran’s rulers that it will require serious concessions — not smiles and empty rhetoric about ‘trust-building’ — to save their regime.” He adds, “Failing that, only the use of military force will stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability — with all consequences that implies.”