Thursday, January 12, 2006

Iran is a problem.

Even Europeans are getting a bit nervous.

From Reuters:

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany meet on Thursday to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme and EU diplomats said the trio would call for Tehran to be hauled before the U.N. Security Council.

The United States said on Wednesday it was “more likely than ever” Iran would be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions and that it would seek to “change Iranian behavior” through diplomatic channels.

If the ministers agree to such a push, it would signify the end of 2-1/2 years of diplomatic efforts by the European Union’s three biggest nations to convince the Islamic republic to abandon its uranium enrichment program, which they suspect it intends to use to produce fuel for atomic weapons.

The meeting begins at 1430 GMT.

One diplomat from the “EU3” said the plan for Thursday’s meeting in Berlin was “cancellation and referral”—meaning ending talks with Iran unless it promises not to begin enriching uranium and referral to the Security Council, which could consider punitive economic sanctions against Tehran.

“Everybody agrees the point of no return has been reached,” the EU3 diplomat said, referring to what he said was an informal consensus reached among the bloc’s 25 member states.

I have to agree with Jeff at Protein Wisdom:

Too bad that “point of no return” thing couldn’t have been reached before a megolamaniacal, virgin-covetous, beatific zealot looking to be spirited to Allah’s cathouse atop the radioctive plume of the first-ever detonated Islamic nuke got his hands on everything he needed to make his dream of a Levant devoid of filthy Jews come true—but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right?

Jeff just has a poetic way of hitting the nail on the head, doesn't he?

All I can say is that the only political way we can do anything about Iran is if Europe leads the way or Iran attacks in the region. Otherwise this can't be something we do on our own. And we all know why, don't we?