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While UN Security Council Waffles, Iran's Nuclear Program Proceeds

(Washington Post) Editorial - Last week's statement by the UN Security Council on Iran's nuclear program offered another example of the weakness of multilateral diplomacy against this threat. It took more than three weeks of concentrated effort by Secretary of State Rice and other senior officials to produce a nonbinding declaration that omits any hint of more serious action. Its issuance was accompanied by public statements from the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers explicitly opposing sanctions. The bottom line is that another month will pass during which Iran will continue to build a bombmaking capacity without suffering any serious pressure from the outside world. If diplomacy is going to be effective, considerably greater pressure will have to be placed on a regime that has been riding a wave of radicalism. Two years of negotiations by European governments with Iran, backed by the U.S., led only to more uranium enrichment. The objective now must be to induce Iran to stop that activity - not to talk more about it.
2006-04-04 00:00:00
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