Spot the missing politician
Welcome to 'Letters From A Tory', covering British politics from a conservative perspective. Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts about today's letter, and don't forget that you can CLICK HERE to get my letters sent to you by RSS every morning.
Dear readers,
It is with some concern that I read in the papers that Iran could face tough new UN sanctions within weeks after it announced plans to step up its uranium enrichment programme. Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, earlier said Tehran had told the UN’s nuclear watchdog it would start enriching uranium to 20% from today. The move heightens fears that Iran is moving closer to weapons-grade uranium.
What reaction has there been from the international community?
- Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, angrily denounced the Iranian regime for refusing to send its uranium stocks abroad for enrichment in a deal that would have met the country’s needs but removed the danger the material would be used to make nuclear bombs. “This is real blackmail,” he said. “The only thing that we can do, alas, is apply sanctions given that negotiations are not possible.” French Defence Minister Herve Morin added: “It will unfortunately be necessary to launch a dialogue with the international community that will lead to new sanctions if Iran does not stop its programmes.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy later added his voice, saying Iran should face “strong sanctions” over its nuclear programme.
- Robert Gates, the US defence secretary said Iran had scorned “multiple opportunities” to dispel fears over its ambitions to acquire a nuclear bomb and said more sanctions were the only route left. “We are very much agreed that action by the international community is the next step,” Mr Gates said after talks with his French counterpart in Paris. Although Mr Gates said he still wanted to “try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue”, he said: “The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track, but it will require all of the international community to work together.”
- The British Foreign Office swiftly issued a statement warning that were Iran to take such action it would instantly be in additional violation of five United Nations Security Council resolutions.
- “It may be that the sanctions screw needs to be, or can be, turned here and there,” said the German Defence Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
- Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, predicted the Security Council would be asked to vote on sanctions by the end of March. He said Israel was willing to back broad international pressure on Iran but believed the need for action was urgent. “The cost of stopping Iran now is nothing compared to what it would take to stop them if they become nuclear powered,” he said.
- Even the Russian foreign ministry again called on Iran to abide by its earlier agreements to send uranium abroad for enrichment.
Clearly, we have a broad international consensus for stopping Iran. But, wait a minute, isn’t there someone missing from this list of reactions? Hasn’t someone recently been appointed to deal with this sort of crisis?
What’s their name….. errrmm….. you know….. hold on, it’ll come to me……
Witanagemot Blogs
Well, on her appointment, our illustrious High Representative did say that she intended her style to be of ‘quiet diplomacy’. Perhaps this is an example of what she meant. There is little more quiet than saying nothing.
Alternatively, perhaps the necessity to comment came out of hours. For does she not commute from London to Belgium each day and,in any event, not answer the phone after 8pm.
Truly, the noble Baroness is the archetype for ‘waste of space’, and a further example of Gordon Brown’s errant cronyism.
Ah the war drums are beating once again.
Now, just to be clear, are we after:
1) A nuclear free middle east?
2) A middle east with nukes, just not Iranian nukes?
3) A middle east with just one nuclear armed power, Israel?
Because it looks to me, very much, that we’re going for #3…
No 3 suits me fine, given the alternatives…
Surely, we just need to invade Iran in order to remove its potential for creating WMDs, and the same temporal wormhole will open up as last time.
We will then discover that, in fact, Iran never had any WMD program at all?
They’ll have WMD *after* we bomb the sh*t out of them – a Widespread Muslim Diaspora.
Bleeding HEL!!
Tell that woman to grow a beard QUICK! Either that or take to the Burkha.
I did read some nuclear wonks saying that there is absolutely no way Iran has any serious capability and is clearly bluffing – a bit like the EU was bluffing when they tried to pretend Baroness Ashton was going to be relevant to international affairs.
My concern is that I’m not entirely sure whether the West cares about establishing the truth or not when painting Iran as an evil nation is just so much fun for them.
Tony took to the stage for one afternoon and got everyone all pumped up and hard for hitting Iran, even while justifying his lies on Iraq. Incredible that people are falling for this.
Blair is paid for by Neo Cons and others with strategic interests in taking out Iran. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Hasn`t anyone noticed that we are getting a new government?Barbarella is staying put and we are getting a new executive-eu government.So maybe she`s not long for the eu.Andy M
@Shaun Pilkington –
There is no money left to pay the piper.
No one is going to invade the land of the ultra fanatics, however much they would like to.
There is going to be a big outbreak of peace by 2015. Followed by appeasement, containment or just ignoring of rogue states, until it all kicks off again.
maybe she’s too busy peeling bananas
She looks like she’s just eaten nine in one go.
Looks like she has done SOMETHING with nine in one go.
But I thought there were only seven dwarves?
Nine lemons, maybe!
And so now we see that the US and UK totally misread the situation in the middle east, and that our invasion of Iraq has had the dire consequence of removing the real brake to Iranian revolutionary Islamic expansionism.
Iraq was a pain in the ass, but realistically were only sabre rattling because they needed to appear strong with such a difficult neighbour. When Saddam was making noises about his WMD and that he could strike at us, it was probably largely for Iraninan and domestic consumption.
We are stuffed now. If Iran does gain weapons grade nuclear material it will be unstoppable. Even if it doesn’t – expect them to supply the basic materials for a dirty bomb very soon.
I get the feeling that it is Iran rattling our cage these days rather than the other way round.
All we have to offer in response is platitudes.
Dunno. You have five nuclear armed states on that list.
We DO have SOMETHING, IF they had the bloody GUTS.
@Furor Teutonicus – Do you really think such committed anti-smokers could create such a monumental glass ashtray as would be left from nuking Iran?
We could polish it and use it as a telescope lens.
Fit THAT to Hubble!
Why illustrate this article with a picture of a turtle, unless it’s a broad hint that we need a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to sort out the Mad Mullahs? Or is it a giant tortoise, as a symbolic comment on how slowly the EU moves when action is needed rather than hot air?