President-elect Barack Obama addressed some of the most delicate foreign policy issues over the weekend, confirming that he intended to pursue a clear policy of engagement with Iran and to press immediately for peace in the Middle East.
U.S. Rejected Aid For Israeli Raid On Iranian Nuclear Site
(New York Times)…David E. Sanger. Jan 10, 2009. President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.U.S. Thwarted Israeli Plan To Bomb Iranian Nuclear Facility
(Washington Post)…Karen DeYoung, Jan 11, 2009. President Bush last year rejected an Israeli request to provide sophisticated, deep-penetration bombs to attack Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment facilities, Pentagon officials said yesterday.
After an eight-year struggle over whether to engage Iran, the United States may finally be on the verge of launching a direct dialogue with its perennial Middle Eastern adversary. Washington has a long list of grievances to discuss, from sponsoring terrorism to the nuclear issue. The success of any talks will hinge on a critical unknown: What does Iran want? Today, an ascendant Iran views negotiations with the United States as a means of consolidating its gains and achieving American recognition of its regional status.
US officials said yesterday that they want answers from Russia on whether it is selling advanced surface-to-air missiles to Iran, a move the United States insists could threaten American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The development of nuclear arsenals by both Iran and North Korea could lead to “a cascade of proliferation,” making it more probable that terrorists could get their hands on an atomic weapon, a congressionally chartered commission warned yesterday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday briefed a half-dozen key Arab states on U.S.-led efforts to stem Iran’s nuclear program but achieved no new consensus on how to prevent Iran from developing the technology for a nuclear weapon.
Israel Warns U.S. Of Iranian Nuke Attack, (USA Today)…Unattributed, December 18, 2008, Pg. 7
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, it could try to attack the United States.
Barak, who spoke Wednesday at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said the world should press Iran to stop it from building nuclear weapons.
“If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America,” he said.
Indicating the possibility of a military strike, Barak said, “We recommend to the world not to take any option off the table, and we mean what we say.”
A bevy of foreign policy experts are pressing Barack Obama to move quickly on his promise to “engage in aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran. He’d be better off first taking a long, deep breath and allowing Iran’s economic crisis to take its toll on the mullahs before getting down to serious business.
The political landscape has shifted dramatically in Iran in the last few months, handing the United States policy options it hasn’t had since the 1979 revolution. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s populist expenditure policies, coupled with the unprecedented collapse of the oil market, have driven Iran into an economic tailspin. The result is that Iran is more vulnerable to focused economic sanctions than it has been in 30 years.
Iran’s record of economic failure since the revolution is astonishing. Average real per-capita income is lower and income distribution is more unequal. Oil production has dropped 30% and yet dependence on oil revenues is higher. The unemployment rate is hovering around 25%, and this year inflation may top 30%.
U.S. Says Drop In Iraq Deaths Tied To Iranian Arms Cutback, (Los Angeles Times)…Julian E. Barnes
A marked decline in the number of explosive devices coming into Iraq from neighboring Iran has helped reduce the frequency of deadly attacks against U.S. service members, a top U.S. general said Thursday.
Senior U.S. government officials independently confirm that Iran is now “on contract” for the Russian SA-20 Gargoyle strategic SAM system, irrespective of Kremlin protestations to the contrary.
Tehran’s deployment of such a system would mark a step-up in capability and considerably improve the country’s ability to defend its controversial nuclear facilities, where the West remains concerned that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability.
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