Published: March 20, 2007 11:49 pm      

Iran nearing total isolation

On Thursday the Security Council approved a draft resolution to impose a few more modest sanctions against Iran and individual Iranians who are members of the Revolutionary Guards. The new sanctions are because Iran has refused to freeze its enrichment of uranium as requested by the Security Council.

In response to sanctions imposed in December, Iran hurried up its enrichment program.

Increasing the economic pressure on Iran and its individual leaders is the best technique for dealing with the crisis. As we have seen with North Korea, international pressure is a long-term tactic that can work. By continuing to buck the U.N., the Iranian leadership is committing the Iranian population to years of hardship.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has set his country on this course of confrontation with the U.N. He contends, and rightly so, that Iran has the right to develop nuclear power plants. But Ahmadinejad has also called for the destruction of Israel, supports terrorist organizations and seems to welcome Armageddon. Taken as a whole, Ahmadinejad’s course of actions should be a big worry to everyone in the Middle East.

Last year Ahmadinejad rejected Russia’s offer to provide fuel enrichment so Iran could have nuclear power and the Security Council’s concerns of a nuclear weapon program could be alleviated. That would have been a good compromise for everyone.

Instead, we still have the Security Council pushing for a freeze and Ahmadinejad leading his country into economic ruin.

The situation is not irreversible, but it seems it will take much more time and probably more sanctions to push Ahmadinejad or his successor into a more reasonable position on Iran’s nuclear program.

– Goshen News