Friday 20 August 2010

Disappearing Iran

Looking at the newly published Lib Dem Conference Fringe Directory, I see a lot of fringe meetings about Israel/Palestine. And, since I'm involved in organising one of those meetings, I can hardly complain about that. So, yes, clearly, there's lots to say about that aspect of the Middle East, so on we go. But when you search the directory for "Iran", not a single reference comes up. Lots of meetings about Israel, not one about Iran. Now, I know that the Coalition Government, including the Lib Dem Ministers, absolutely gets the importance of Iran as an issue and I applaud that wholeheartedly. But Iran's non-appearance in the directory suggests that a lot of grassroots party members simply do not realise that the challenge posed by Iran's regional ambitions is one of the biggest policy issues facing the international community in the Middle East. And that is really quite shocking. This typically astringent piece by Christopher Hitchens sets out the reasons why Iran should not be ignored by anyone debating foreign policy at present.

3 comments:

  1. Funny Hitchens! Exactly what is Iran to be "disarmed" of? A non-existing nuclear weapons program? A civilian, IAEA monitored light-water reactor that cannot be used to make bombs due to the inconvenient laws of physics?

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  2. You really should check what you read before relying so blindly on the media's representations. The "Alleged STudies" are from the so-called Laptop of Death that the US claims came from Iran, but which no one believes -- and appear instead to be planted by the Israelis.

    http://www.iranaffairs.com/iran_affairs/2009/06/israel-source-of-alleged-studies-on-nuclear-weapons-in-iran.html#tp


    In fact, had you been more familiar with Iran's nuclear file you'd know that in Feb 2008, the IAEA gave Iran a clean bill of health, and furthemore every single IAEA report has consistently stated that there has never been an iota of evidence of a nuclear weapons program found in Iran.

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  3. Incidentally, the Bushehr program has nothing to do with the "Alleged Studies" anyway.

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